Catch A Falling Star
by CarlieD
Summary: James Potter and Sirius Black had been together their entire life – more than friends, more than brothers. But when James was killed, Sirius had to take James’ little boy and go into hiding in order to save him. Little did he know just how much his life w
1. Prologue: August 9, 1975

**CATCH A FALLING STAR**

James Potter and Sirius Black had been together their entire life – more than friends, more than brothers. But when James was killed, Sirius had to take James' little boy and go into hiding in order to save him. Little did he know just how much his life would change…

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

PrologueAugust 9, 1975 

"You are so hopeless when it comes to Evans, mate, I'm telling you," 16-year-old Sirius Black laughed as he looked over from his spot sprawled out on his back in the field. "You know she hates your guts, and you're still pining for her."

James Potter turned red with an embarrassed grin and shoved Sirius. "Can I help it if she's a redheaded siren?"

"Don't see the rest of us tripping over ourselves when she walks in the room," Sirius snickered.

"I do not trip over myself, thank you very much," James said indignantly, although his gaze returned to the starry sky above them rather quickly.

"Oh, that's right," Sirius said teasingly. "You walk into things."

"I do not walk into things either."

"'Has that wall always been there?' 'No, James, just for the last five hundred years.'"

James sighed and rubbed at his left arm pensively.

"Jay, don't rub your arm, you're going to irritate it," Sirius said, looking at his best friend worriedly. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, _Mum_, just a bite," James replied quickly; a little _too_ quickly as he tugged the sleeve of his sweater down further. "Itches, that's all. It'll fade soon."

"James, don't lie to me, you know you can't do it," Sirius said quietly. "I mean, if you don't want to tell me, then just say so. But don't tell me it's just a bite. You've been rubbing at that arm for months."

Again, James sighed and folded his arms back behind his heads, eyes following a falling star across the sky. "You remember when we were about five or so, and we saw that falling star?"

Sirius thought for a while, a little thrown by the sudden change in topic. Then he said, "Yeah, I do. We were four. You wanted to know if it was possible to catch a falling star and put it back where it belongs. I remember you got really upset when your mum told you that you couldn't catch it." He looked over at James, only to see a very serious expression on his friend's face.

"But does the star know it's falling?" James asked. "Can it stop itself from crashing? Can it feel its life unraveling? Is there any way it can get back to where it was?"

Sirius frowned at James. "James, it's a star. It doesn't _know_ anything. What are you going on about?"

"Do the other stars know it's falling?" James continued. "If they do, why don't they do anything? Don't they realize the star doesn't want to be falling? Or do they see it and do nothing? Is the star simply replaceable, and they don't really care at all about the star? Do they watch the star fall and wonder why it wasn't fixed in place? Or was the star always a little different from them, and nobody ever saw that it was losing its balance? What made the star fall in the first place? If we knew, could we go back and change things so that the star never fell at all? Would the star be different, or would it still fall? Was its destiny all plotted out before it even came into existence? Was the star just doomed to fall, and it's going to crash no matter what anybody does?"

Sirius sighed and propped himself up on his elbows. "All right, we're not talking about stars anymore, James. What's wrong?"

James groaned and threw his arms over his face. "I don't _know_, Sirius."

"James, give me your arm," Sirius said commandingly, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Apparently too frustrated with himself to argue, James let him grab his arm and push up the sleeve. Burnt in the skin on the inside of his forearm were multiple small circles, about the same diameter as a wand tip.

Sirius felt his face blanch. "James, how long have you been injecting?" he asked hoarsely, dropping James' arm.

James sat up and looked at Sirius, biting his lip. "A little over a year," he replied quietly.

A year… ever since his mother's condition had started worsening and his father had fallen ill. And then stresses of OWL year on top of that, the Irish Clanne's murder of his mother's family and a dormitory full of other boys with their own family problems…

"It's just… it's all falling apart, Sirius," James said, his voice shaking.

Sirius sighed as he felt his friend's distress somewhere deep within. Then he wrapped James into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, mate," he said softly, releasing his friend. "I should've realized something was wrong."

James shook his head. "Nah, you had your own problems, Sirius, without dealing with mine."

Sirius looked at James, seeing what he should've seen all year for the first time: the drawn face, the dark circles, the pained eyes, the downcast expression. "Your problems _are_ my problems, Jay. We made a promise, remember?"

James let a smile escape, saying, "Yeah, I know."

"No matter what happens," Sirius said.

"No matter where we are," James continued.

"No matter who's in trouble,"

"We'll get through it together."

"Always," they finished together, both grinning at each other.

"Promise?" Sirius asked.

"Promise," James affirmed and the two friends caught each other's grasp.

"Do you ever wonder how long 'always' is?" Sirius asked, lying back down on the grass. "I mean, 'always' could be for hundreds of years yet. Or 'always' could be for the next ten minutes."

"Don't talk like that, I don't like to think about it," James replied, stretching out again.


	2. The End Of An Era

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

* * *

**_Chapter I The End of an Era _**

22-year-old Sirius stopped suddenly, leaning against the cold brick wall. Something told him that he didn't need to check on Peter, that it was James he needed to check on. James and Lily and little Harry…

"Oh, no," Sirius muttered to himself as a sickening thought came to him. "Oh, no, the little rat, he couldn't have been…"

But he was reasonably certain that nobody had ever suspected Peter. And with good reason: talentless lump like Peter, he was everything Voldemort _didn't_ want in his followers. They'd have sooner suspected him – for heaven's sake, his brother had been a known Death-Eater! They'd have sooner suspected Remus, a werewolf living in a time when most half-breeds like vampires and werewolves were allied with the Dark Arts. But _Peter_? It didn't make any sense.

Sirius cast a momentary glance at the window of the fifth floor flat in the middle of downtown London, where Peter was hiding out. The lights were dimmed. Then, gathering up his resolve, Sirius Disapparated.

* * *

He could already smell the acrid smoke. He was too late… Sirius took off at a run for his best friend's house, shivering when he heard a twisted scream echo faintly through the night.

He arrived at the wreckage just in time to see Peter Disapparating, a panicked expression on his face.

"Yeah, that's right, you'd better run, you two-faced _rat_…" Sirius muttered, stepping carefully through the debris. He felt the hot tears start gathering in his eyes as his gaze fell upon James' motionless body. "James…" he said softly, kneeling down next to his friend. "James, no, wake up… James."

This couldn't be happening. James couldn't be dead. This was _James_. James was indestructible: how many times had Sirius thrown him off his broom at a couple hundred feet, how many hexes had they experimented with, how many brawls had they gotten into? They were talking about the guy who had survived being sliced open by a werewolf while in Animagus form, who managed to get back to the castle and stop the bleeding and healed the wound on his own because he couldn't risk going to Madam Pomfrey. He still had the ugly scar down his side to prove it.

"James, this isn't _funny_," Sirius begged. "Get _up_, you stupid idiot, get _up_." Still James lay lifeless. "James, if you don't get up right now, I'm going to… I'm going to tell Lily."

Lily. Where was Lily? Where were Lily and Harry? Standing up, Sirius went in search of them, but somewhere deep inside of himself, he knew what he was going to find.

Barely a few feet away from James was Lily, the red hair James loved so much covering her face as she lay motionless. Sitting rather dazedly a few inches from Lily was Harry, looking around as though he wasn't quite certain what had just happened.

"Oh, there _is_ such a thing as good karma," Sirius moaned as he quickly scooped the little boy up into his arms. "You're alive," he whispered, holding Harry tightly against him as Harry squealed in excitement.

"Sius!" Harry threw his arms around Sirius' neck. Then he started chattering to Sirius, not a single word of it intelligible.

Sirius laughed softly, ruffling Harry's soft tufts of black hair. Frowning, he brushed back the hair from Harry's face to reveal an angry red lightning bolt scar. "Oh, Harry…" he whispered. "Come on, we have to get you out of here. Before all of the people show up. Now where did your bag go?"

Sirius knew that somewhere very close by was an emergency bag packed with the essentials: James and Lily had always left it right by the nursery door for easy access in a quick escape. Finally spotting the black bag, Sirius hoisted it onto his shoulder. Sometime soon he would deal with the shock, but right now Harry needed him.

* * *

He couldn't stay here long. It was too obvious a spot for them to look, his own house. Those who knew that James and Lily had gone into hiding would immediately point the finger at him for Secret-Keeper. Nobody would stop long enough for him to explain, nor would anybody believe his story at all.

He had to go somewhere. Possibly even out of England. And he had to go fast, and as discreetly as possible.

Sighing, Sirius shifted Harry to one arm, the little boy still clinging to his robes. Finding a small duffel bag, he dumped it onto his bed and started rapidly piling clothes in there, a mixture of robes and Muggle clothing: who knew where he would end up? More and more wizards and witches were beginning to wear Muggle clothing even amongst themselves, but it was still good to have a few robes just in case. He had always kept a good supply of money already changed into Muggle currency, and he grabbed all of it, adding some wizarding currency in a separate moneybag.

"Banka. Banka, Sius," Harry pleaded, pulling at a lock of Sirius' hair – he had been letting it grow for a while.

"Not right now, Harry," Sirius replied quickly, closing the bag. He was going to have to travel Muggle style: there was no way he was getting anywhere in the wizarding world. Setting Harry down on the bed, he made one of the quickest changes of clothes that he'd ever done. Shaking his hair out of his eyes, Sirius caught Harry just before he took a tumble off. Realizing that Harry had his pyjamas on, Sirius groaned. It was going to look awkward, if he was traveling with a kid in his pyjamas. "All right, kid, let's get some clothes on you." And the scar. He had to cover the scar.

Opening Harry's bag, Sirius let out a soft laugh of relief to find an outfit of Harry's that included a hat. It was one of Lily's favourites, he should've realized she would've packed that. Once he had changed Harry, Sirius shoved the pyjamas back into the bag and closed it. He slung both bags over one shoulder and hauled Harry back up into his arms, sticking his wand safely in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Banka," Harry insisted again. "Sius, banka."

"Shh, Harry, we're going," Sirius said, tugging the hat a little tighter on Harry's head: it wasn't the warmest night either, and Lily would hex him until she was blue in the face if she found out he'd taken Harry out without a hat on. She probably would've thrown some mittens on too, and a coat and scarf, but he wasn't quite that over the top.

"Banka!" Harry shrieked, kicking at Sirius.

Sirius groaned again. "Harry, stop shrieking. I don't have your… no, wait, I do." Making a quick detour into the sitting room, Sirius grabbed a scarlet fleece blanket and handed it to Harry. Harry snatched it out of his hands and clung to it desperately, snuggling his head down into it and onto Sirius' shoulder. "I forgot you'd left that here."

* * *

"Would you like pillows, sir, some blankets?" inquired the stewardess as she looked into the compartment. Sirius looked up from his spot stretched out on the converted bed, dark circles under his eyes as he propped himself up on one elbow.

"Oh, no, thank you, I'm fine," he replied, rearranging Harry's beloved blanket over the sleeping toddler.

"You're quite certain of that, sir?" the stewardess asked once more. "Would you like a bed, for your little boy?"

"Oh, no, it's all right, thank you," Sirius said again. "Well, actually, if you have a small pillow for him," he said suddenly, seeing Harry's face crinkle in discontent at the rough upholstery against his cheek.

"Right away, sir," the stewardess said, bustling away. Sighing, Sirius brushed Harry's hair out of his small face, watching his peaceful expression. What he wouldn't give for a few hours of peace of mind right about now, for the chance to just lie down and sleep without any trepidation as to what he'd encounter in his dreams.

Reality was slowly sinking in now, as he traveled further and further from London, and from Godric's Hollow, and from the end of everything he'd ever known. James was gone. Lily was gone. Nothing was going to bring them back. Sirius was never going to see them again, was never going to get the chance to razz James about his sometimes-pathetic devotion towards Lily one more time. There would be no more late-night discussions about absolutely nothing, no more bargaining with them to abscond with Harry for a night or two.

Biting his lip, Sirius slid a finger into Harry's little fist, smiling softly as the toddler tightened his grip. "Ah, Harry, how do you do it?" he whispered. "How do you sleep after all you've seen tonight?"

Harry's other hand made its way up to his mouth, where his thumb was inserted and his elbow threatened to decapitate the bear he had been clinging to. Leaning over, Sirius laid a soft kiss on the tousled black hair, looking up once more as the stewardess returned with a small travel pillow. Sirius thanked her quietly and gently lifted Harry's head high enough to tuck the pillow underneath.

* * *

Sirius jumped when he felt something crawling on him. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep.

"Sius up!" Harry giggled, clambering over to sit on his chest as Sirius rolled over onto his back, rubbing at his eyes. "Sius up!"

"Yeah, yeah, Sirius is up," he muttered, propping himself up on his elbows and wrinkling his nose at Harry, who squealed as he grabbed at Sirius' shirt to keep from toppling off and gave Sirius a childish kiss. "I take it you've slept enough, little man," he said, slinging Harry over a shoulder as he sat up. Harry shrieked and laughed happily.

"We're just about to pull into Glasgow," came a voice from across the compartment. "He's been up and about since the border."

Sirius looked across to see a woman about his age, with a sleek blonde bob, though it was slightly rumpled from travel, a gorgeous black eye and the most amazing blue eyes he'd ever seen. Sitting in her lap was a little boy about the same age as Harry. The little boy was blonde as well, with the same blue eyes. "Oh, hello," Sirius said in surprise. "Has he been bothering you?"

"Oh, no, of course not," she quickly assured him. "He's been chattering away, that's all. Have you been traveling far?" she asked.

"We got on in London," Sirius said, stifling a yawn. "How about you?"

"We got on in Liverpool," she replied, brushing her hair behind her ears, and for the first time, Sirius noticed a small diamond ring on her right hand. "I'm Jessica, this is my son, Adam," she added suddenly.

Sirius hesitated for a moment before he reasoned with himself that it was doubtful the Muggles would've heard about him or Harry. "Sirius," he replied, bringing Harry back up into his lap. "This is Harry, my godson."

"Goodness, his parents let you take him all the way to Glasgow from London?" Jessica asked in amazement.

Sirius sighed, passing Harry his blanket when Harry demanded for it. "His parents are dead," he said quietly.

Immediately, Jessica's face looked horrified. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"It's all right," Sirius replied, forcing calmness into his voice.

"We're pulling into Glasgow now, sir, miss," the stewardess said kindly, passing the compartment. "Kindly make sure you've gathered all your belongings."

"Oh, good," Jessica sighed.

* * *

"So, Harry," Sirius said, looking around the bustling street. "Where to now?"

"Eat," Harry advised him solemnly.

Sirius laughed. "Eat is a really good idea, kid. You're very clever."

"Ver'kever," Harry echoed with a smile.

Sighing as he stepped out into the crowd, Sirius realized that he didn't know a single thing about what was going to happen. But as long as he could stay one step ahead of the Ministry and the Death-Eaters, they would be all right. He had Harry safely away.


	3. An Opportune Disguise

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

Chapter IIAn Opportune Disguise 

25-year-old Sirius grinned as he caught his 4-year-old godson. "Hey, Harry," he greeted cheerfully, swinging him up onto his shoulders. "I hope you weren't an absolute pest for Mrs. McMurray."

"No, of course he wasn't, the dear boy," Mrs. McMurray said fondly, picking up her handbag. "I don't think I've ever seen a boy as well-mannered. And _I_ raised eight of them."

"Thank you so much," Sirius said to her as he handed her the payment.

"Oh, never a problem, Sirius," she replied, giving him a smile. "I'll see you Monday morning."

"Bye, Mrs. McMurray!" Harry called, before he giggled and said, "Sirius, can we go outside and play?"

"After dinner, Harry," Sirius told him, letting him back down onto the ground. "Go play in your room for a bit, I need to read the mail."

"I want pasta tonight," Harry spoke up. "Can I read mail with you?"

"We had pasta last night, Harry," Sirius laughed. "We can't have it every night. And sure, come on up," he added, patting his thigh. Face lighting, Harry clambered up onto Sirius' lap, picking up the newspaper and opening it as though he were trying to read.

Sirius picked up the small stack of envelopes, sorting through them. "So what's new in the world, Harry?" he asked, smiling when the little boy 'tsk'ed and shook his head.

"Scotland's lost the Quidditch World Cup," Harry informed him seriously. "England won."

Sirius rolled his eyes and laughed, taking the paper from Harry's hands. "Harry, that's a Muggle newspaper. There's nothing on Quidditch in there, and at any rate the World Cup isn't for three weeks yet, and both Scotland and England aren't even in it."

"Well, I don't know how to read," Harry amended. "I was only guessing."

"You are too adorable for your own good, Harry Potter," Sirius said with a grin, sending Harry into a fit of giggles as he tickled him.

"Sirius," Harry asked that evening as he lay on Sirius' chest, looking at the stars up above.

"Yeah, kiddo?" Sirius replied.

"Why is your last name Black and mine is Potter?" Harry asked innocently.

Sirius' heart stopped dead. He had known that this day would come soon. Harry had to have noticed the differences between the other children and himself: he was too clever a child not to. He was reasonably certain that he and Harry were the only ones with wizarding blood in the area.

"Well, Harry," he started to say. "The reason we have different last names is because I'm what they call your godfather. That means that your mum and dad wanted me to take care of you if they ever couldn't."

"What happened to them?" Harry asked, wide eyes looking at Sirius.

Sirius paused. How was he supposed to explain the concept of murder to a four-year-old? "They died when you were just a little baby, Harry," he finally said, hoping that Harry wouldn't push the issue.

"Why did they die?" Harry asked, dashing Sirius' hopes of leaving it until another time.

"Harry, when we lived in England, there was a terrible war in the country. You know what a war is, right?"

Harry nodded. "It's when people fight and fight and fight and they don't stop," he replied.

"Well, the bad wizards that we – your dad and mum and I and our friends – were fighting against wanted to kill your mum and dad, so you guys had to go into hiding to keep you safe."

Actually, Sirius didn't know exactly who Voldemort had wanted to kill, but it had to have been James or Lily: what could a year-old boy possibly do to threaten one of the most powerful Dark wizards in history?

"Was it like Hide and Seek?" Harry asked.

"Sort of," Sirius replied. "Only they had put a spell on your house so that only one person knew where you guys were. Nobody else could find you unless that person told them where you were."

"Did you know where we were?"

"No, I didn't. But the man who knew where you were tricked everybody. He wasn't really a good wizard, he was a bad wizard, and he told the baddest wizard where you guys were hiding. When I found out the secret spell was broken, I came to your house as fast as I could, but you were the only one alive."

"Is that where I got my scar, when the bad wizards came?"

Sirius nodded, hugging his godson.

"Did they go to jail? The bad wizards?"

Sirius sighed and shook his head. "No, Harry, no they didn't. I don't think anybody ever caught them."

"So is that why we live in Glasgow now?" Harry asked, twisting his head around to look at Sirius. "So that the bad wizards don't find us?"

Sirius watched the bright green eyes that were so much Lily's, the face that was a replica of James at this age. "Yeah," he said softly, laying a kiss on Harry's nose. "You're a very clever boy, you know that?"

"Sirius, can I have an ice cream?" Harry asked cheerfully, clinging to his hand as they made their way through the crowded streets of the marketplace.

"We'll see," Sirius laughed, pulling Harry closer to him to avoid the boy crashing into some poor old grandmotherly woman tottering down the street against the flow. "We have to do our errands first, Harry." He tugged at Harry's hand to keep him away from knocking down a display set up outside a bookshop. "All right, come up here, little man," he said finally, hauling Harry up in his arms. "You're going to crash into somebody or something."

"Well, there's so many people, Sirius," Harry said logically. He had to grab at Sirius' collar to keep from falling to the ground as a man jostled against Sirius to go past.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed, whirling around as he tightened his grip on Harry. "Watch where you're going, would you?"

The man turned around. He had a young face, probably about Sirius' age, but his light brown hair already was beginning to grey. His face was lined and tired, his clothes a little worn, his blue-green eyes a little surprised at the outburst. As soon as Sirius saw him face to face, his heart stopped. It was Remus. What was Remus doing in Scotland?

"All right, Harry, let's get going," Sirius said abruptly, quickly heading deep into the crowds as Remus opened his mouth to say something and come back towards them.

"He's following us, Sirius," Harry said matter-of-factly.

"I know, Harry," Sirius said tightly, finding a dark alleyway and slipping inside before he Disapparated.

"I don't like it when you pop like that, Sirius," Harry told him sternly as they Apparated into the backyard. "Don't do that."

"I'm sorry, Harry, but we needed to get away fast," Sirius replied. "Now, I want you to go inside and pack some books and toys into your rucksack. We're going to go on a bit of a trip."

"Where are we going?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Sirius said with a smile at Harry, ushering the boy inside. "It'll be an adventure."

"Why are we going right now?" Harry persisted. "Don't you have to work on Monday?"

"Stop pestering me, Harry, and go pack your rucksack," Sirius repeated, hauling out the same duffel bag he had packed all those years ago. Throwing some of his clothes into the bag, he picked it up and went across the hall to Harry's bedroom, where he did the same with Harry's clothes.

"Now, I need you to stay quiet, Harry, while I'm getting the tickets," Sirius said, kneeling down to straighten out Harry's jacket. "We're going to pretend-play for a bit. We're going to pretend that I'm your dad, all right? So if anybody asks you what your name is, you tell them that it's Harry Black."

"We're only pretending, though," Harry repeated.

"Yes, but you don't tell them that."

"Do we have to pop there?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"I really don't like popping places, Sirius," Harry said, as Sirius let him back down onto the ground in the dark corner of the airport parking lot.

"I know, I'm sorry," Sirius said, taking hold of Harry's hand. "Come on, let's go. Remember what I said." Harry nodded and scampered along after Sirius as he started to walk purposefully towards the entrance to the airport.

Just before he was about to open the door, a blonde woman crashed into him, tugging along a blonde little boy.

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry," she gasped out, looking at him.

"Have we met before?" he asked with a frown, trying to remember where he'd seen this woman before as he held open the door for her.

"Hey!" an angry male voice echoed from down the parking lot.

"Oh, good heavens, Adam, come!" she said rapidly, yanking the little boy into the airport.

"Are you in trouble?" Sirius asked, keeping up easily with her hurried pace. Harry and Adam, however, were having a bit more trouble.

"Yes, yes, I suppose," she said, a little hysterically. "Adam, would you please not dawdle?"

"Well, you're running, Mama, and my legs are littler than yours," Adam protested, carrying a rucksack on his back.

"Sirius, I can't walk that fast," Harry complained, tugging at Sirius' hand.

"Here, Harry," Sirius sighed, hoisting him up into one arm. "Can I help you with anything?" he asked the woman worriedly.

The woman laughed dryly, scooping up her boy with one arm. "Unless you can rid me of my maniacal ex-husband, I'm afraid not. I just hope I can get a flight out of here very soon."

"Do you know where you're headed?" Sirius asked, taking a quick glance at the departures screen. A flight was leaving for Egypt in an hour. Egypt… that'd take them a while to find them there.

"Wherever the next plane is headed," she said. "Do I know you?"

They looked at each other for only a moment before she exclaimed, "Oh, from the train to Glasgow! You had the little toddler with you… well, I suppose he's not a toddler anymore."

"_That's_ where I recognized you from!" Sirius laughed. "Jessica, right?" She nodded, a slight smile coming onto her face.

"Mama, I can hear Father," Adam said desperately, pulling at her sleeve. Jessica started to look slightly panicked again.

"Well, listen, we're heading to Egypt," Sirius said, letting Jessica in the lineup for ticket purchases first. "Why don't you join us? I mean, your ex will looking for a single woman with a child, right?"

"Yeah…" she said hesitantly.

"And we're trying to give a few people the slip as well, so really, it's a very opportune disguise," Sirius said logically. "No one will be looking for a couple traveling with their children for a vacation."

"All right," Jessica agreed. "Jessica Rothesay," she added.

"Sirius Black," he replied. They were next in line to get their tickets. "Here, let me handle this, okay?" he said, reaching inside his jacket to get his wallet and touching his wand hidden inside momentarily to make Jessica's identification read Black as a surname.

"But what about – "

"I've got it under control," Sirius repeated quietly as the teller gestured him forward. "Hi, four tickets for the 5:15 to Cairo, please. Two adults, two children."

"How many bags?" the teller asked mildly.

"Two," Sirius said, surreptitiously glancing at Jessica's baggage.

"Can I get your names, please, and ID?"

Pulling out his driver's license, and taking the one Jessica held out, Sirius replied, "Adults Sirius Black and Jessica Black, children Adam Black and Harry Black."

The teller passed the licenses back without a word spoken, and Jessica looked at hers then looked at Sirius with a questioning look in her eyes. "Here you are, Mister Black, have a good flight," the teller continued, passing him four boarding passes. "Pass through security on the second floor, your plane departs from Gate 2D."

"Thank you," Sirius said, setting Harry back down on the floor and immediately grabbing his hand. "Come on, let's go."

"Sirius," Jessica hissed as they approached the security pass. "Adam and I don't have passports."

"I have everything under control," Sirius replied calmly, reaching in his inside pocket as if to get his driver's license out again. "Calm down," he said with a grin as he withdrew not only his license, but two English passports as well. Passing one to her, he quickly averted his attention when she gave him a frown. "Like I said, it's under control."

"All right, your wand's in that pocket, isn't it?" she muttered under her breath. Sirius' heart stopped beating momentarily. "Relax, I'm wizarding blood too. A Squib, though."

Sirius sighed. "All right, you found me out. Just… let's go before we miss our flight."


	4. A Changing Position

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

Chapter III: A Changing Position 

"So, Harry," Sirius said affectionately as he walked into the kitchen. "Who won the game last night?"

"I don't know," Harry replied, looking up from the kitchen table, where he was watching the Quidditch team zoom around the photo in the Arabic _Cairo Post_. "I can't read yet. I just like watching the pictures." Sirius laughed and ruffled his hair.

Adam leaned over from across the table and pulled the newspaper towards him. Studying the photo carefully, he said, "It might be France."

"Let's see," Sirius said, looking over Adam's shoulder. "Yeah, I think that's France. I'll see if I can't find an English newspaper somewhere today, and we'll check if we're right."

"What are you boys all discussing so seriously in here?" Jessica asked, coming in from her own room to start some breakfast. "Good morning, Sirius," she added.

"Morning, Jess," he replied cheerfully. He had to admit, it was sort of nice to have somebody else in the house, even if it was just a convenient living arrangement: he didn't have to find somebody to watch Harry while he worked, and Jessica had the semi-security of a man in the house, and somebody capable of magic, in case her ex caught up with them. And it didn't hurt that she was a very beautiful, charming young woman, although he tried not to think about what it would be like to be more than just a fake husband. _That_ would create some definitely awkward moments.

They had chosen to continue their 'married with children' façade when they had reached Cairo as a sort of mutual benefits package. It helped to dissolve any rumours surrounding their arrival, and it stopped questions about the boys, because they were still going by Black. To the average person in their neighbourhood, they were a nice, normal young family. Maybe a little distant, but what couple wasn't with a pair of active 4-year-old twin boys? At least Adam and Harry had quickly adapted to this lifestyle, treating each other like real brothers and both Sirius and Jess like parents: the only issue was that neither boy called Sirius 'Dad' and Harry didn't call Jess 'Mum'. Before they went out to any social event, Sirius and Jess had to remind both boys to keep up the pretending.

"You're going to be home on time for dinner tonight?" Jess asked briskly, putting on the frying pan for eggs and bacon.

"No," Sirius replied. "I've got to stay late at work. I'll be back about nightfall, I think."

"Sirius," Jess started to sigh.

"I'm sorry, Jess, but I don't have an option here," Sirius said, a warning tone in his voice.

"You've worked late every night this week," Jess continued, sliding eggs and bacon onto a plate and handing it to him.

"Mama, remember I don't like bacon," Adam called.

"And I don't like smashed eggs, Jess," Harry added.

"_Yes_, boys, I know," Jess sighed in slight irritation.

Sirius quickly finished his breakfast. "All right, I'm off," he said. "Bye, Harry," he said, kissing the top of Harry's tousled hair. "Bye, Adam," he continued, ruffling Adam's hair.

"Bye, Sirius," both boys chorused.

"Goodbye, Jess," he ended, getting the idea she'd rather he walk into the Red Sea and drown himself.

"Would you go already, if your work is so important to you?" she snapped, turning away from him.

"Gracious, Jess, you'd think I was actually married to you," he muttered, going out the back door.

Sirius sighed as he walked into the quiet house. The boys would've both gone to bed long ago: he was going to have to do something really special with them this weekend to make up for missing their evening roughhouses all this week.

He caught sight of a blonde head sitting in one of the armchairs by the fireplace. "Hey, Jess," he said quietly, leaning over the back of the chair.

Jess looked up. "Hello," she replied tersely, getting up. "Finally in, I see."

"Listen, what did I do?" he asked in frustration, going to block her from exiting.

"Nothing," she said shortly.

"Why are you treating me like this?" he demanded. "What did I do to upset you? Jess, you knew late nights were a part of the deal with this job!"

"Well, I wasn't seeing Adrian everywhere I went when you _took_ the job, Sirius!" Jess exclaimed, voice cracking.

"What?" Sirius asked, startled. "Why didn't you say something, Jess?"

"I didn't want to look paranoid," Jess muttered, swiping the tears away from her eyes. "How is he finding me? I don't understand how he knows where I _am_!"

"Okay, calm down," Sirius said reassuringly, a little taken aback when she fell into his arms crying. Okay. He could deal with this, he was a coolheaded, mature young man. He did not lose his head just because a beautiful woman threw herself at him. Sobbing, but threw herself at him still the same.

Jess started playing with her wedding ring, staring at it broodingly. Sirius watched her for a moment, then frowned. She had been wearing that same wedding ring when they had first met, three years ago… "Jess?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"Did Adrian give you that ring?"

"Well, yeah, it's my wedding ring."

"Let me see it for a second," Sirius said quietly, pulling it off her finger and taking out his wand. Tapping the ring, he said, _"Specialis revelis!"_

From the ring came a smoky set of words: _193 Mehmet Drive, Cairo, Egypt_. "Mm-hmm," he muttered. _"Deletrius."_

The words disappeared, and he tossed the ring into the fire, watching to make sure it melted. Jess' eyes were wide as saucers. "What did you do that for?" she yelped.

"It had a tracking spell on it, Jess," Sirius replied. "You can't take those off. We had to destroy the ring."

Jess swallowed with some difficulty. "He still knows where I am, Sirius," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his shoulder as tears sprung to her eyes. "He can still find us."

"All right, relax," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her. "We can work through this."

"We have to go again," she continued hoarsely. "We can't stay here, Sirius, not while he knows where we _live_. I don't want to move, but we _have _to."

"Jess," he repeated, tilting her face up gently. "Jess, listen to me. We'll get through this. This what we're going to do: we're both going to go to bed, and tomorrow morning we'll go out with the boys, and we're going to figure out what to do about Adrian after a day of fun, all right?" Then, before he had quite thought about what he was doing, he leaned in and kissed her.

For a moment after the kiss had broken, Sirius and Jess stared at each other in shock. Then Jess smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "How did you never get married, with a kiss like that?" she asked smoothly, as Sirius slid his hands onto her waist and kissed her again.

"I thought I _was_ married," he murmured into her lips. "I thought I was married to you."

Laughing softly, Jess wove her hands through his hair, leaning into the kiss. "Well, if _that's_ the case, I think we have some catching up to do."

"Oh, really?" he asked, slowly guiding her up the stairs and into the master bedroom, where Jess had been sleeping. "How's that?"

"Mmm, I don't seem to remember a wedding ceremony," she said.

"Of course there was," Sirius laughed, easing her down onto the bed. "We were standing in line at Glasgow International, trying to escape from about a half dozen people. Adam and Harry were our witnesses."

"I don't remember any honeymoon," she countered.

"Well, that's easily remedied."

"Wake up!" came Harry's happy shriek as he and Adam both dashed into the master bedroom of their new house in Cairo.

Jumping up onto the bed, both little boys tackled the sleeping couple. "It's _Christmas_!" Adam proclaimed loudly, tugging at his mother's arm.

Jess groaned and snuggled closer into Sirius' side. "Not right now, boys, it's early," she mumbled.

"No, it's not!" Harry insisted, crawling onto Sirius to pull at his hair. "It's 7:00, it's _late_! Come _on_, get up!"

"Ugh, Harry, get off of me," Sirius said blearily, trying to shield his eyes from the sunlight. "You're kneeing me in the lungs."

"Not until you both get up," Harry said determinedly.

"Yeah," Adam added, clambering onto Sirius as well.

"And how am I supposed to get up with the both of you sitting on me, I ask?" Sirius managed to gasp out. "Go find your stockings. Let Jess and I wake up."

"Okay!" Both boys exclaimed, jumping down and running out. Sirius groaned and buried his face into Jess' neck.

"I think I'm permanently bruised," he murmured. "That kid's got knobbly knees like his father."

"Mmm, now that we're alone," Jess said, biting back a shriek as Sirius started to kiss her neck. "No, not that, Sirius, they'll come back," she laughed. Sirius emerged and watched her sparkling blue eyes. "I have something to tell you."

"What?" he asked, sneaking another kiss. "That you're the most beautiful woman in the world? That I am absolutely addicted to you? That I love you? I know all that."

Jess smiled and sighed. "But did you know that I'm pregnant?" she said teasingly.

Sirius looked momentarily shocked and then grinned. "No, no, I didn't know that." He kissed her, saying, "Darling, that's wonderful. When?"

"The doctor said in early, mid-July," she replied, resting her head back down onto his chest. Then she sat up rapidly, followed by Sirius when they heard the sounds of Adam and Harry screaming in terror. "Sirius?" she said nervously, getting up as her husband jumped out of bed and grabbed his wand.

"Just wait here, okay?" he said, catching Adam and Harry with his free arm as they tore into the room, clinging desperately to his legs. Harry seemed particularly distraught. "Guys, what's wrong?"

"There's a man downstairs," Adam sobbed. "He said… he said…"

"Go see your mama, okay?" Sirius said reassuringly, detaching both boys from his legs. Nodding, Adam and Harry both transferred themselves to Jess' waiting arms as Sirius headed down the stairs.

There was silence on the main floor. It seemed clear. Sirius still held his wand out at the ready, looking around the sitting room, the kitchen, to try and see any sign of an intruder.

Sirius jumped as he nearly stepped on something furry and squeaky, and then his face contorted in rage as he realized what it was. Or more precisely, _who_ it was. "Why _hello_, Peter," he snarled, pointing his wand at the rat squeaking in terror on the floor and stepping on the tail to keep it pinned in place. "Fancy finding _you_ here." Grinding his teeth, Sirius said, "You know what I do to rats in my house, Wormtail? I kill them. Nasty things, rats." And just as he raised his wand to deliver the fatal blow, Peter transformed, leaving a cowering man pinned by his robes to the ground.

"P-P-P-Please, Sirius…" Peter begged, watery eyes darting everywhere but to Sirius' stormy face. "You wouldn't k-k-k-kill a man. Would you?"

"I'm not entirely sure you _are_ a man, Wormtail," Sirius said coolly, keeping his wand pointed. "You still look like a rat to me. A two-faced, double-crossing, murdering rat. You tell me you're not here to finish the job you botched for your precious master three years ago and I'll tell you you're a liar."

Peter didn't respond, still quivering as he drew his wand.

"Oh, don't do that," Sirius said. "You know you could never duel. You got pummeled by a first-year in seventh year."

"You think k-k-k-killing me will b-b-b-bring James back?" Peter asked suddenly.

"Don't you dare talk about James to me. Don't you dare say his name like you were ever worthy of his friendship," Sirius snapped.

"He l-l-l-looks like James, d-d-d-d-d-doesn't he?"

"What did I just finish telling you about speaking James' name?" Sirius snarled angrily, sparks flying out of his wand in his rage. Peter recoiled from the sparks.

"Does it m-m-m-make it hurt less, Sirius? T-T-T-T-T-Taking Harry? You ever l-l-l-l-l-look at him and w-w-wish he was James?"

"Shut up!" Sirius growled.

"C-C-C-C-Can't do it, can you, Sirius?" Peter said softly. "You c-c-c-can't kill me."

"Harry's seen enough death, thanks to you," Sirius replied quietly. "_Stupefy_! No!" he growled as Peter transformed again and started skittering away through the open back door. "Get back here, you _rat_! Take it like a _man_!" Growling in frustration, Sirius kicked the kitchen wall.

"Sirius?" came a frightened voice from the doorway to the sitting room. Turning around, Sirius sighed and knelt down, opening his arms.

"Come here, Harry," he said softly, catching Harry into a tight hug as the little boy ran to him. "I'm sorry you had to listen to that, kiddo," he whispered, lifting Harry up into the air.

"Sirius?" Jess asked quietly, appearing in the doorway with Adam clinging to her leg. "What's going on?"


	5. Finally Home

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

Chapter IVFinally Home 

Sirius groaned as he slowly woke up. At some point in the night, Adam and Harry had both crawled into bed with him and Jess. Opening his eyes, he and Jess exchanged rolls of their eyes over top of both slumbering boys' heads. 'Good morning,' she mouthed with a sleepy smile.

'Good morning,' he replied.

"Sirius, we can't live in a two-bedroom flat for much longer," Jess sighed. "Five people just do not fit."

"I know, love," Sirius replied, rubbing her shoulder blades soothingly. "I'm working on it. Adam, Harry, quiet down," he added warningly as the sounds of Adam and Harry wrestling came echoing through their tiny Fort Lauderdale, Florida flat.

"Well, work on it faster," she murmured as his arms wrapped around her, resting gently on her swollen stomach. She bit back the smile when Sirius kissed her neck. "We're running out of time. I'd rather not be in the process of moving when the baby comes."

"I know, Jess," he said softly. "I promise, soon."

"I have it, Jess," he said excitedly, coming into the sitting room and grinning when her face lit up.

"You do?" she asked, as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. "You mean it, Sirius, you've found a house?"

"It's perfect for us," he said breathlessly, pulling her down onto the couch.

"Tell me," she said, eyes sparkling.

"It's in California, down on the west coast," he said. "Tiny wizarding village called Solana in the middle of nowhere. There's only about five families in the village, but there's still plenty of kids for the boys to play with."

"Middle of nowhere's good," Jess said slowly. "Remote location, not easy to trace, I hope."

"Most _wizards_ can't even find this place, Jess," Sirius said, squeezing her hand. "You gotta _really_ know where you're going. One wrong turn and you're lost for hours."

"Tell me about the house," she said, satisfied that it met their security needs. "Big, small? New, old? Wreck?" she added, cringing. "Tell me it's not a wreck."

"Oh, it's not a wreck," Sirius quickly assured her. "I mean, it's not exactly _new_, but there's just a few minor fixes to be done. A caved step on the front porch, one of the bedroom doors doesn't quite shut, but that's it."

"Is it a big house?" she prompted. She wanted a big house, because she wanted more children. "How many bedrooms, how many bathrooms? Big kitchen?" she added hopefully.

"Big," Sirius affirmed. "One master suite, six bedrooms, two additional bathrooms, one enormous kitchen."

"Oh, Sirius!" she laughed, hugging him. "Sirius, you're amazing!"

"Uh-oh," Jess said softly as she heard shouting and screaming from the kids playing outside in the common area of the houses. Passing the infant over to Sirius, she sighed. "I'll go see what's wrong."

"All right," Sirius agreed, cuddling his newborn daughter close.

There was some kind of scuffle going on between the five-year-olds of the village: both of her boys, Jagger Vernier, David O'Brien, Dustin Tyner, even quiet little Maura Thomas. "What is going on here?" she demanded, hauling Adam and Harry out of the fray by their collars. "Adam, Harry, I am appalled!" Shortly thereafter, the other parents had all caught their own child, offering their own strong words of rebuke.

_"You're liars!" _Harry screamed, as Jess struggled to keep a hold on both of her boys.

_"Take it back!"_ Adam added fiercely.

"No!" Jagger shouted back. "It's the truth!"

"TAKE IT BACK!"

"What is going on here?" Jess snapped, catching Harry around the waist as he tried to dive at Jagger.

"He's a _liar_!" Adam cried, tears spilling on his cheeks.

"YOU'RE THE LIARS!" David shouted.

"David!" Owen O'Brien snapped. "Shut your mouth before you get in even more trouble!"

"What are you arguing about?" Catherine Thomas asked sharply.

"They said that Chloe's not my sister!" Harry screamed.

"What?" Jess asked in disbelief. "Of course she is, Harry, Chloe's just as much your sister as she is Adam's." Sirius had been through this whole 'do-you-love-her-more-than-you-love-me' discussion with Harry when Chloe was born. She thought Harry had understood he wasn't seen as separate, that he would always be a part of this family.

"They said that she's not my sister because you're not my real mum and Sirius isn't my real dad!" Harry cried, burying his face into her shoulder.

"They're _lying_!" Adam screamed again, as Jess tried to come up with an answer to this dropped bombshell. Their family was a lot more complicated than these kids had ever seen: five-year-olds didn't necessarily understand their situation. The other adults all looked shocked at what had transpired.

"You _said_ that to him?" Owen O'Brien finally exclaimed angrily, grasping David's shoulder and steering him back towards their house.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked worriedly as Jess came back in with two distraught boys. "Harry, Adam, what's the matter?"

Jess sighed and took Chloe back, settling her against her shoulder. "You're going to have to talk to them about Chloe again," she said quietly.

"What happened?" Sirius asked, sitting down and letting both boys scramble up into his lap.

Adam sniffled. "David said that… David said Chloe isn't Harry's sister because you and Mama aren't his real mum and dad."

"And then we told him he was a liar, and then he hit me," Harry added tearfully.

"But he _is_ a liar," Adam insisted. "Right, Sirius? He _is_ a liar."

Sirius sighed. How was he supposed to explain to five-year-olds that it didn't matter whether the same blood flowed through your veins, because it was the love that counted? That was an incredibly abstract concept: he couldn't have fathomed it at five. He had only begun to understand it when he was in his teens and he had needed to reconstruct some semblance of a family. He had gotten much more than that: he had gotten a second family. The Potters really had treated him like their own his entire life, and especially in those later years. He had found brothers in James and Remus and Peter, a sister in Lily when she had joined their group. Why else did it hurt so badly to lose them, but he had barely bothered to acknowledge his blood family's death?

In the years that had passed since James and Lily's murders, Sirius had come to see Harry as his own. Not just as James' son who he was keeping for a while, but as his own son. It might be James and Lily's blood running through Harry's veins, but it was Sirius who did everything that James would've done himself had he been alive. He would never dream of saying that he and Jess had taken their place, but Harry carried his name now, and he knew James and Lily would've understood his decision to do that.

"Sirius?" Harry repeated in a quavering voice.

Sirius sighed and took his best stab at an explanation. "Boys, there are always going to be people who say things like that. People who don't understand that our family is very special because we made it, we didn't get born into it. Just because when you were born, Harry, it was to different parents, that doesn't change that you've always been a part of this family."

"But she _is_ my sister, right?" Harry begged, tears welling up.

"Of course she is," Jess said softly, sitting down beside Sirius. "You don't have to have the same parents to be her brother, Harry."

"Yeah, tell David that," Adam grumbled.

"And he saves the day once again," Jess said softly with a smile as Sirius wrapped his arms around her waist. "A regular knight in shining armour."

"Mmm, I don't know how shiny the armour is," Sirius murmured, kissing her.

"It's shiny enough," Jess laughed, resting her head against his shoulder. "Your adoring fans are waiting for you to come tuck them in. They won't let me do it."

"Don't worry," Sirius assured her with another kiss. "Eventually they'll tire of me and start demanding you."

"They'd better, or I'll start to feel expendable," Jess sighed. "You'd best go before they revolt," she added regretfully as there came impatient calls from the boys' bedroom.

Sirius could hardly stop his head from shaking as he entered the bedroom. They had more than enough bedrooms in this enormous house that they could each have their own, but Adam and Harry had stubbornly refused to split up. The boys hadn't even picked the biggest room for themselves, choosing one of the smaller ones instead. As a result, it often looked as though a tornado had ripped through it. Two little five-year-old tornadoes, to be precise.

And it made matters worse when Adam and Harry had staunchly refused the notion of bunk beds ("How are we supposed to talk to each other when we can't see each other?" Harry had asked logically). The two separate beds took up more space and facilitated the throwing of various objects to one another after their lights went out at night, which oftentimes went a little awry.

"What happened in here?" he asked with a laugh, catching both boys as they tackled him, giggling insanely. Picking up Adam in one arm and Harry in the other, he gave them both a kiss and dumped each on his respective bed. Shrieking with delight, the boys scrambled underneath their covers.

"We were playing Quidditch," Adam informed him as Sirius tucked his stepson's covers around him securely. Adam reached out to give Sirius one last hug, blue eyes sparkling.

"Really?" Sirius asked seriously, turning to repeat the nightly routine with Harry, who still had his security blanket firmly tucked underneath his head.

"We wouldn't make so much mess if we could play outside," Harry said.

"With real brooms," Adam added quickly.

"And a real Golden Snitch," Harry agreed.

Sirius laughed. "Point taken, boys. But you can fly on real brooms when you're 8."

"5," Harry countered, smiling.

"8," Sirius replied.

"5."

"8."

"5."

"8."

Adam interrupted. "5 and a half."

"Oh, you think you're getting brooms for Christmas?" Sirius asked teasingly, standing up. "Goodnight, boys."

"Goodnight, Sirius," they both echoed.

"5!" Harry called after him.

"5 and three-quarters!" Adam added.

Sirius rolled his eyes and poked his head back in momentarily. "8. Goodnight."

"You run a hard bargain, Sirius!" Adam called.

"We'll win you in the end, you know!" Harry agreed.

Jess laughed as she heard the boys' impish negotiation. Snuggling deep into Sirius' arms as he slid into bed, she said, "So how old were _you_ when you got on a broom for the first time by yourself?"

"All right, so I was 4," Sirius admitted with a sheepish grin. "But James tossed me right back off, so I don't think it counts."

"You _do_ drive a hard bargain, Sirius Black," she laughed. "You've already ordered the brooms, haven't you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, you're not as tough as you pretend to be."

Sirius woke up when a small body clambered over him to climb into bed, kicking him in the side. The sounds of a very upset little boy met his ears, and Sirius looked down to see Harry crying and trembling in his arms, still clinging to the worn old scarlet blanket he'd had since birth. "What's the matter, Harry?" he asked softly, pulling his godson closer. "What's wrong?" Harry sniffled and shook his head. "A nightmare?"

Harry nodded.

"What was in the nightmare?" Sirius asked gently.

"Lots of green," Harry said softly. "And screaming."

"What else?" Sirius prompted, feeling his heart twist into painful knots.

"No, no, no," Harry whimpered and buried his face into his blanket. "No."

Sighing, Sirius gathered Harry into his arms and got up. "It was only a nightmare, Harry. You're safe here. Nobody's going to find you," he whispered reassuringly, going out into the hallway.

"Do you promise?" Harry whispered in a broken voice as Sirius carried him out into the backyard. He knew that would calm Harry right down; Harry really was a lot like James in some ways – he loved being outside, especially at night. He loved stars.

"I promise," Sirius said, setting Harry down on the ground. "Here, kiddo," he said gently, lying down on the grass. "See how many you can find tonight."

Harry giggled and scrambled into his arm. "There's millions of them, Sirius," he informed Sirius. "You can't count them."

Sirius laughed and tapped the tip of Harry's nose. "That's right. You're a very clever boy, you know that?"

"Sirius?" Harry asked with a yawn as Sirius lifted him back into his arms to take the little boy back to his bed.

"Yeah, Harry?"

Harry yawned again and nestled his head down into his blanket against Sirius' shoulder. "Can you catch a falling star?"

"Why would you ask that, Harry?" Sirius asked, heart stopping momentarily as he remembered that summer with James.

"Just wondering."


	6. The Next Step

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter VThe Next Step 

"Sirius!" 10-year-old Adam shouted excitedly as he took two envelopes from an owl's beak. "Mum! Harry!"

"Are they here?" Harry demanded, skidding into the kitchen and diving for one of the envelopes. "They're here! Sirius! Jess!"

"For land's sake, boys, quiet down," Jess reprimanded, coming into the kitchen as well with 13-month-old Lindsey on one hip.

"But they're here!" both boys exclaimed as Sirius walked in with a shake of his head, quickly followed by 3-year-old Sophia and 5-year-old Chloe.

"Well, open them then," Sirius laughed, hoisting Sophia up onto one arm. "Wait, wait, predictions."

"Well, it'd be especially nice if they got into, say, Abernathy School," Jess said with a smile. "Nice and close, just past the Arizona border."

"Aim small-time, why don't you?" Adam scoffed. "Why not just kick us down to Nockenels?"

"What about you, Sirius, what do you think?" Harry asked.

"Mmm, I'm thinking one of the Institutes," Sirius laughed. "I'm going to say… Brevick."

"They'd die of cold in Brevick," Jess countered. "I don't think either of them even remembers what snow _is_."

"What do you guys think?" Sirius asked, ruffling Harry's hair as both boys grinned.

"Oh, we're going straight to the top," Harry replied with a nervous glance at Adam, who was almost bouncing with excitement.

"Definitely Innes," Adam agreed.

"Good luck with that one, boys, nobody gets into Innes," Jess said. "Well, open them already!"

"You first, you're older," Harry said to Adam, who nodded and carefully tore open the envelope.

"A.D. Black," Adam started breathlessly, "this letter is to inform you that you have been accepted…" he paused.

"Where? Where?" Harry demanded, trying to grab Adam's letter out of his hand.

"To _Innes Preparatory in NEW YORK!_" Adam shrieked, bursting into laughter. "Open yours, Harry, quickly!"

Harry did as he was told and his face lit up. "I got in. I got into Innes too!"

"Let me see those letters," Jess exclaimed in disbelief as Sirius grinned. "They did. They actually did."

"_Innes_!" Adam exclaimed in delight.

"That's, like, the best school in the _world_!" Harry agreed.

"Adam! Harry!" came the shouts from out in the courtyard. "Get out here! Tell us where you're going!"

Laughing the entire way, Adam and Harry both dashed out of the house. Jess turned to look at Sirius in dismay. "You couldn't have sent them any further away for school?" she asked, still reading the letter addressed to H.J. Black.

"Probably, if I tried hard enough," Sirius said with a smile.

"Uniforms and books will be provided upon arrival… we'll have to send a hundred Galleons apiece for their uniforms – a hundred Galleons, they'd better be bloody good quality! Books are lent out from the school. The Innes bus will leave Solana at 4:00 on the morning of the 1st of August… Sirius, that's tomorrow! That's in twelve hours!"

"Well, let's get packing then," Sirius replied, giving her a quick kiss and setting Sophia back down on the ground. "I'll get the boys," he said.

"Daddy!" Chloe complained, trailing along after Sirius. "Daddy, come play with me."

"In a bit, darling, all right?" Sirius replied, opening the front door. "Adam! Harry! You leave in twelve hours, get back in here and pack!"

"Daddy!" Chloe whined again, tugging at his leg. Sirius sighed and swung her up into his arms.

"Just give me a moment, Chloe, all right?" he said, nuzzling her nose affectionately.

"Adam, Harry, go to sleep!" Sirius groaned as he heard the excited chatter from the boys' bedroom. "You have to leave in four hours!"

"They're not listening to you, Sirius," Jess yawned, nestling her head into his shoulder. "Besides, I think they're both running on adrenaline."

A bang from the other bedroom gave them a fright. "What are they _doing_?" Sirius muttered as he rolled out of bed.

"Okay, that wasn't supposed to happen," he heard Adam laugh as there came the familiar thump of the two boys tussling.

"You think Jess'll be mad when she sees it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, Harry, Sirius _did_ spend a lot of time fixing that. She made him do it without magic, remember?"

"What are you doing, guys, it's midnight," Sirius asked, opening the door and wincing as he saw the newly repaired windowsill reduced to slivers of wood on the ground. The night wind was whistling in through a tiny crack in the windowpane.

Adam and Harry both looked up. "Can't sleep," Adam said.

"Too excited," Harry added. "We're practicing."

"You've had those wands for a year, guys, you've had plenty of practice," Sirius sighed, waving his wand at the window to repair it quickly. What Jess didn't know wouldn't hurt her. "Get back into bed and sleep, would you? The rest of us still have to function tomorrow."

"All right," the boys said reluctantly, climbing back under their respective covers.

"Adam, Harry, eat up," Sirius said through a yawn as he swallowed another mouthful of coffee. "We don't have time for you to dawdle through breakfast this morning."

"Life shouldn't exist this early in the morning," Harry mumbled.

"It's not even light out yet," Adam agreed.

"Come on, you can sleep on the bus," Sirius repeated, setting down his coffee. "Finish your breakfast, we've got twenty minutes until the bus leaves."

"All right, so you must be the Black boys," the older man said jovially, dressed in a smart black suit with a white shirt and a bronze tie.

"So are we just supposed to wear our jeans and stuff?" Adam asked curiously.

"No, no, once you've paid, you'll get your uniforms. They'll automatically resize when you grow, clean themselves, do everything that normally you'd have to do yourself to care for them."

"So that's why they're a hundred Galleons," Sirius said as he handed the man the payment. As he did that, Adam and Harry's clothes changed into smaller replicas of the older man's outfit, except with the Innes Preparatory crest on the left side of their jackets. Both boys shot thrilled glances with each other, grinning like mad. "You'll forgive me, my wife nearly had a heart attack when she read that."

"I'd say they're a pretty good investment," the man laughed. "Patrick Oliver, by the way, I'm the head of first-year students at Innes. Well, Misters Black and Black, say goodbye to your father and we'll be on our way."

"Bye Sirius," Adam said, giving him a hug and stifling another yawn.

"Bye Sirius," Harry echoed drowsily, hugging him.

"Bye, guys," Sirius replied, returning both hugs. "I won't tell you be good, because I know you won't be. But don't bring New York City down to its knees."

"We won't," Adam and Harry both chorused before they got onto the bus with Mr. Oliver and the bus disappeared.

"It's so quiet around here without the boys," Jess sighed as she and Sirius sat outside a few months later, keeping a careful eye on Chloe and Sophia while they played with the other children – Chloe was threatening to turn into Adam and Harry, she was so rambunctious. Lindsey was happily toddling back and forth between her parents, giggling as she lost her footing and Sirius caught her quickly.

Jess called warningly, "Chloe, play nice!" Cori Vernier was threatening to burst into tears and Jennifer O'Brien already had. Chase Tyner looked like he was having the time of his life. Closing her eyes, Jess rested her hands on her swelling stomach.

"Ow!" wailed Cori as she fell to the ground. "Chloe!"

"Chloe Cairo, get over here this instant!"

"I didn't do nothing, Mama!" Chloe protested.

"Sure you didn't, young lady," Jess reprimanded. "What have I told you about playing rough?"

"To not to do it," Chloe mumbled, tears quivering at the edges of her lashes as her grey eyes watched her mother. "But I didn't do nothing!" she wailed again, retreating to Sirius' free arm. "Daddy, I didn't _do_ nothing!" she insisted, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Chloe, darling, you just have to be careful," Sirius told her gently. "The other children aren't used to playing like you do with Adam and Harry."

"When are Adam and Harry coming back?" Chloe asked tearfully.

"They'll be back on December 20 for Christmas, sweetheart," Jess replied.

"School's too long," Chloe complained.


	7. Acceptance

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

Chapter VIAcceptance 

"Hey, there's my Quidditch champions!" Sirius greeted with a grin as Adam and Harry both bounced off the bus and launched themselves at him. Harry was still sporting a beautiful black eye from a Bludger, and Sirius could swear that Adam still had a bump on his head from a Beater bat.

The wizarding newspapers all over North America had been raving for weeks over the performance of the Innes Quidditch team at the Inter-School Championship, and then at the two ten-year-old Innes prodigies who had brought the national team to victory. Of course, when they reported every blow with great detail, Jess had thrown the papers away and muttered about dangerous sports. Sirius and Chloe, naturally, had salvaged the papers to read in secret.

Adam and Harry were both talking over each other, trying to cram in six months' worth of stories into a single minute.

"And then he dodged it and it was _so_ cool!…"

"And he was _three times_ my size, Sirius, he was a tank, I swear!"

"And Coach Anderson-Whickett says he'd take us back next year!"

"And Coach Henderson says that we're the best he's seen in the school in decades and he thinks we could go professional in a couple of _years_!"

"That'd be _so_ awesome – professional Quidditch before we're even 16! Don't you think, Sirius?"

"All right, slow down, guys," Sirius laughed, ruffling both boys' hair. "Let's get home first. Jess has been looking forward to you guys getting home for a week. Not to mention Chloe. You'll have to give her the blow-by-blow of every single game you've had this term – she's your biggest fan."

"It's a shame our summer vacation's only a month, instead of two like everybody else," Adam commented as Sirius charmed the trunks to follow them.

"I know, we have to cram everything in half the time everybody else gets," Harry agreed. "So who's gotten back?"

"Everybody else is back already," Sirius told him. "You guys are the last to arrive."

"Figures," Harry muttered.

"But that's what we get for being prodigies," Adam pointed out with a grin.

"All right, you're not allowed to read any more articles about you," Sirius exclaimed. "It's all going to your heads."

"Hey, who's that?" Harry asked suddenly, pointing towards the edges of the woods.

"Who's who?" Sirius asked with a frown as he looked where Harry was pointing. He caught a glimpse of somebody disappearing into the forest, but not enough to see the face. "I don't know. At least I know I'm not going mad now, I've been seeing people on the edges for a while, and I'm sure it's not the werewolves."

Jess laughed as she snuggled into Sirius' arms that night, watching Adam and Harry lying on their stomachs entertaining 7-month-old Miriam and Kevin, Chloe chattering incessantly at both of them while sitting on Harry's back, Lindsey chasing Sophia around the house. "It's so chaotic in this house," she told him over the noise, eyes sparkling. "We're never going to get a quiet moment again."

"I know, isn't it great?" Sirius laughed, kissing her.

"I _do_ like it," Jess replied happily. Sophia shrieked again and clambered up onto her lap, trying to escape Lindsey, who abandoned her pursuit of her sister and attacked her brother instead, tugging at Adam's hair to pull herself up onto his back.

"Play _me_," Lindsey demanded.

"Ow! Lindsey, don't!" Adam yelped, pushing her hand away.

"Sirius, somebody's at the door," Harry said. "I just saw them come up the steps."

"All right, everybody to bed," Jess ordered, setting Sophia back on the floor. "No whines, cries or protests until you're under 2. Harry, Adam, that means you too. Teeth brushing, let's go."

Sirius picked up Kevin and settled him on one hip while he went to go answer the door. Jess scooped up Miriam and herded the kids upstairs.

Opening the door, Sirius' heart stopped. "Remus," he said.

It had been almost seven years since they'd last seen each other, but Sirius would always be able to recognize the person he had once counted among his closest friends. It still hurt to think that he couldn't think of Remus as a trusted person any more: not while Remus believed it was him who had betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort. He had lost all of his friends that night.

"You're a very hard man to track, Sirius, you know that?" Remus said quietly.

"That was the whole idea behind going into hiding, Remus," Sirius replied. "What are you doing here?"

"You know what I'm doing here, Sirius."

Sirius sighed. He did know what Remus was here for. He was tired of running; they couldn't run anymore, anyhow. He and Jess had known that this might happen now that they had settled in one spot. "All right," he said. "Come inside for a second while I break it to him. Excuse the chaos. Jess! Harry!"

"Yeah, Sirius?" Harry asked, popping up at the top of the stairs, Adam right behind him.

"Adam, get to bed," Sirius ordered. "Harry, come down here."

"Why?"

"Just get down here, would you? I have to talk to you."

"Sirius, what's going on?" Jess asked, coming down behind Harry. "Chloe, get back into bed!" she added sharply as the little girl came running down the stairs.

"But Daddy hasn't said goodnight yet," Chloe protested, giving Sirius a hug. He returned it quickly and said,

"Goodnight, spitfire," he said. "Now go back up to bed." Chloe laughed and disappeared upstairs again.

"Me too!" Sophia said impatiently, coming downstairs.

Sighing, Sirius gave her a hug and said, "Goodnight, sunshine. Back to bed."

"Me!" Lindsey called plaintively from upstairs. "Me!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and went upstairs briefly to deposit Kevin in his crib and go kiss Lindsey goodnight in hers. Then he came back downstairs.

"No!" Harry protested. "No!"

"Harry, there is no other option in the matter," Sirius said quietly.

"No, I won't go!" Harry persisted. "All my friends are here. This is where I go to school. My Quidditch is here. I'm not going back to England. What have I got in England?"

"Harry, don't be argumentative," Sirius reprimanded. "Now, you can go with a bit of dignity or Remus can drag you back kicking and screaming, but you're going back either way."

"No fair!" Harry exclaimed, scowling. "Why do _I_ have to go?"

Jess chewed at her lower lip as she tried to keep her composure, trying to melt into Sirius' chest and feeling the beginnings of her tears. She couldn't cry – it would just make Harry more upset than he already was.

Sirius laid a gentle kiss on top of her head and said softly into her ear, "I promise, I'll get this straightened out quickly. And then we'll come back, all right?"

Jess nodded silently and sniffled momentarily. England was so far from where they were…She was worried for her family. Sirius had never gone very far away in their entire history. What if Adrian were to find her again? She would be helpless against his attack. What if the Death-Eater who had sent Voldemort after Harry's parents went after him? Harry was still just a young boy, not even eleven yet, he wasn't nearly strong enough to fight a full-grown wizard, no matter how much defensive magic Sirius had taught him. She knew that Adam, at least, would be safe while he was Innes: the security at the school rivaled the Magical Legislature Building.

Sirius had to fight the urge to bolt when it sunk into his mind where he was going. Azkaban…

He could already feel the Dementors sucking away memories. All those memories of James, of Remus, of their years at Hogwarts, causing glorious mayhem. All the memories of watching James fall in love with Lily, of seeing his best friend, his true brother, so deliriously happy despite the darkness coming down around their world. All the memories of seeing James and Lily playing with Harry, of hearing Harry's delighted cry of "Sius!". Watching Harry grow up, becoming so much like James without Sirius ever having encouraged anything. The memory of the first time he had realized that he'd fallen in love with Jess, of the last seven wondrous years: the warmth of Jess' body snuggled against him at night; playing Quidditch with Adam and Harry, Chloe giggling as he let her help him guide the broom; Sophia and Lindsey climbing up onto his lap to cuddle, arguing over who got more room; Miriam's wide blue eyes watching him as he rocked her late at night, Kevin's small hands clinging to his finger. The first excited letter he and Jess had gotten from the boys at Innes, announcing that they had made the cut for the national students' Quidditch team. Listening to the wireless and reading in the newspaper, hearing so many experts and enthusiasts calling his sons incredibly talented…


	8. Unfamiliar Territory

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter VIIUnfamiliar Territory 

Harry was not terribly enthusiastic about having been torn away from his own family to live with this one: one of the English government's workers had agreed to take him in until school started and a 'long-term plan could be determined'.

The only reason he wasn't raising hell in an effort to be sent back home was because he had been sternly warned by both Sirius and Jess to behave himself.

At least this family had about as many kids as he had siblings: they were almost all older, though, but it made it a little easier to adjust, because he knew the way it worked in a large family, no matter where you were – Mum is boss, don't fight and play outside whenever possible. Of course, he hadn't said any of this to them: he said his pleases and thank-yous and left it at that.

"Harry, dear, it's dinnertime," Mrs. Weasley said softly, looking into the crowded bedroom: it really wasn't the ideal set-up, having Percy and Ron and Harry in the same room. Of course, Harry didn't much interact with the other boys, even after a month.

The Ministry hadn't told them anything about the circumstances the boy had lived in for ten years. Was he not used to being around people, other children – was that why he was so withdrawn?

Harry didn't look at her as he watched out the window, where Bill and Charlie were setting up the tables. They had both come back for a bit of a visit, had only just arrived. "I'm not hungry," he replied softly.

"Dear, you hardly ate anything today," Mrs. Weasley said gently. "Come down and have dinner."

Harry shook his head, then the smallest hint of a smile started to cross his face as an ordinary brown barn owl swooped in through the window. Mrs. Weasley frowned and went to take the thick envelope from it, thinking that this was all the Hogwarts letters, though it was strange that they weren't all separate, not to mention the long, skinny package it was carrying in its claws. The owl screeched and ruffled its feathers at her before it dropped the envelope and package in Harry's lap and hooted, nudging its head against his hand.

"Yeah, here, Nicos," he said, offering the owl a crust from his sandwich at lunch. The owl snatched it up and perched on Harry's shoulder, hooting softly. "Thanks." Opening the envelope, the boy's face broke into a delighted grin, pulling out multiple pieces of parchment. One looked as though it had been written on by a young child, one as though a child about his own age had written on it, and one with a clearly female adult writing. Picking up the second one, Harry started to read.

Frowning again, Mrs. Weasley went to go pick up the package when the owl screeched again and snapped its beak at her, flaring up its wings.

"That's _mine_!" Harry said angrily, looking up from his letter. "Leave it alone!"

"Harry, you know you're supposed to be giving Mr. Weasley and I any post first," Mrs. Weasley sighed.

"I don't want you reading my mail!" Harry snapped.

Harry returned his attention to Adam's letter only after she had left him. Then he kept reading. Adam was going back to school tomorrow – well, by now he was at school. He said it was weird to be going back to school by himself and it sucked royally to be rooming by himself at home _and_ at school. It was going to be awful to be on the bus for an entire day by himself. Coach Anderson-Whickett and Coach Henderson had both come out to Solana to talk to them about Quidditch, and had both thrown beautiful hissy fits when they learned that Harry had been dragged back to England and to Hogwarts. He expected the headmaster at school would have something to say about Hogwarts stealing his student. What kind of name was Hogwarts School, anyway? And it was a School. That would really suck, after being a student at a Preparatory. _The_ Preparatory, there was only one. And anyway, why couldn't Harry just come to Innes? Innes had international students. He hoped that Sirius sorted all this out soon, because Quidditch just wasn't going to be as much fun without Harry.

Jess' letter was along the lines he had expected: she told him that everybody missed him and that she hoped he was behaving himself for his foster family. She added that she was sending his birthday present with the letters.

Harry looked at the package and grinned. That had to be a new broom. He and Adam had been hinting and begging for months for the new Nimbuses. He would save it until after he had read his sisters' letter.

Picking up Chloe, Sophia and Lindsey's letter, Harry couldn't stop a laugh from escaping. Chloe was learning to write, she said, and it was really hard and she wished he was home because school was too long. Sophia wanted to know how little a Golden Snitch was and she sure wished he had left his Golden Snitch at home so she could play with it. Lindsey was trying to steal the quill because Adam had turned it sparkly and blue for them. Chloe told him that Mama had said that she could have his old broom and she was very excited to fly by herself now. She was going to practice so that she could play Beater when Adam and Harry came home from school for Christmas. And Mama said to tell him that he had better not misbehave or people were going to think she and Daddy had done a bad job of taking care of him.

Harry bit his lip and put the letters back in the envelope, taking the paper off of his present and grinning when a shiny new Nimbus 2000 rolled out onto his cot. Laughing, he inspected the broom eagerly. Not a twig out of place. Improved aerodynamics, handle adjusted for maximum grip and comfort… he and Adam had all but memorized the description in _Which Broomstick_. And once again, Sirius had gotten his initials put onto the handle: _HJB_. Ever since he and Adam had gotten their first broomsticks when they were 5, Sirius had always gotten their initials carved into the handle. He said that it was because they had to differentiate from each other somehow.

He was itching to go out and try it. He hadn't been flying at all since he'd come home from school.

Lying on his stomach to gaze at the broom in affectionate admiration, Harry still felt like his birthday was incomplete, because Adam should've been on the bed across the room, doing the exact same thing. Chloe and Sophia should've been begging to ride on the brooms with them. Lindsey should've been crying, "Me see! Me see!". He should've been eating dinner with them, Chloe trying to talk to five different people at once, Lindsey dropping cutlery, Miriam and Kevin both trying to exchange food with somebody, Sophia knocking her glass to the floor, Jess' exasperated sigh as Sirius would fix it by magic, Sirius' laugh as he told her that magic fixing was very economical, and Jess' retort that magic fixing was lazy.

"Harry?" came the voice of Remus from the doorway as Harry tried to swipe at his tears rapidly. "Harry, what's going on?"

Harry looked up. He had regained respect for Remus, whom he had heard tell the English government that they should've left him well enough alone, he had been perfectly fine and happy where he was. "Nothing," he replied sullenly.

"Is that a Nimbus 2000?" Remus asked, an admiring tone in his voice.

Harry's face broke into a grin despite his best efforts to subdue it. He nodded. "It's my birthday present from Sirius and Jess. Jess had Nicos fly it out from Solana, that's why it's late."

"Wow, are you spoiled," Remus said. "Can I see it? I've always wanted to see one of these up close, I can't even dream of owning one."

Harry hesitated momentarily before he handed it over. "Be extra careful with it," he ordered. "I've only had it for five minutes."

"Reminds me a bit of the Nimbus Alpha," Remus commented, running his hands over the handle's carving with a mild frown on his face. "Your dad had one of those. That was a seriously nice broom, obviously not as good as his Silver Arrow, but it had a gorgeous start-up. Now that Silver Arrow, now _that_ was an amazing broom."

"Yeah, Sirius says he used to stop and turn on a dime three hundred feet in the air just to make my mum scream," Harry said, reaching to reclaim his broom when he noticed the slight disapproval in Remus' eyes.

"It was more like a hundred feet," Remus replied, handing the broom back. "James knew that Lily wasn't even watching if he was three hundred feet up, she would be busy hiding her face in terror that he was going to fall and die. She was quite content to have both feet firmly on the ground, your mum."

"What are you here for, any way?" Harry asked.

"Professor Dumbledore's downstairs, he'd like to talk to you before term starts," Remus replied. "Asked me to accompany him, I don't know why. While I'm here, though, Mrs. Weasley said you snapped at her just now."

"Tell her not to read my mail and I won't snap at her."

"Harry, she's just following the Ministry's orders. The Minister for Magic wants to ensure you're not getting…"

"Cursed mail?" Harry asked.

"Something like that," Remus sighed. "Come on, let's not keep Professor Dumbledore waiting."

Harry looked at the elderly man standing in the sitting room with some curiosity. He had heard Sirius talk about his old headmaster on numerous occasions – to meet the man was a little daunting.

"Good evening, Harry," he greeted with a kindly sparkle in his eyes. "We meet at long last. Last I saw of you, you were just beginning to talk so that people could understand you."

"Good evening, sir," Harry replied, casting an uncertain glance at Remus to confirm that he had responded in the correct fashion. He still wasn't entirely clear on the English way of life: Sirius and Jess had never really kept many of the 'old ways', as they called them.

"I suppose you're wondering why I'm here tonight?" Dumbledore asked. Even though Harry didn't respond, he continued, "I'm here because I understand that you've spent the last few years in America, am I correct?"

Harry nodded. "Since I was four, sir."

"So you've already had your wand for two years, correct?" Dumbledore said, more as a statement than a question. "Already finished a year of school as well?"

Again, Harry nodded.

"Well, Harry, you see my dilemma here. English children begin school _and_ receive their wands at 11. Already you're well ahead of your classmates. We don't allow students to skip years. However, I am concerned that you may have already seen some of the Hogwarts first-year curriculum. So, we're just going to go over some of the spells and charms that you would be encountering in first year, to see which ones you've already learned."

"All right," Harry replied, going back to his room to find his wand and then returning.

"Well, Harry, you've already completed the Hogwarts first-year curriculum, from the looks of it," Dumbledore said heavily as Harry finished his final command. "The only exception might be History of Magic, since you won't have learnt our history, but the American history."

"That was first year?" Harry asked in surprise. "I learnt all of that when I was 9. That's our base magic. We have to know that by the time we get to school."

"So what do you learn in first year, then?" Remus asked.

"Tell you the honest truth, I don't remember much, I spent most of last year playing Quidditch. Adam and I got excused from some of our classes since we'd already learnt it from Sirius. Um… probably the equivalent of your second year, I guess, if base was your first year."

"You're kidding me," Remus sighed. "You are _not_ at a third-year level right now."

"What did Sirius teach you?" Dumbledore asked warily.

"Mostly Defense, some dueling," Harry said with a shrug. "Not too much of that, though, it drove Jess crazy. Our Defense teacher said we're probably at a third-year level right now."

"Why was he teaching you defensive magic?" Remus asked.

"Just in case, he said," Harry replied.

"In case of _what_?"

Harry sighed in impatience. Really, he thought they were supposed to be brighter than this. "In case the Death-Eaters caught up with us again. Or if Adrian caught up with us again."

"Who in the world is Adrian?" Remus asked in exasperation. Harry acted so much like James sometimes did at Harry's age: as if everybody ought to know and understand what he was going on about. It had driven him batty in their first and second years, when James would mention something and get impatient when nobody except Sirius knew what he was talking about.

"Jess' maniacal ex-husband," Harry said, "or at least, that's what she calls him. I'm not even going to repeat what Sirius calls him. He almost caught us in Cairo. Jess goes into hysterics every time his name comes up, so we tend not to mention him."

"When were you in Cairo?"

"Long time ago. We spent about half a year there after we left Scotland."

"Okay, you said 'in case the _Death-Eaters_ caught up with you'… again?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yeah, they nearly got us in Cairo, too," Harry said. "They actually got in the house, that's why we left Egypt."

"Do you remember what the Death-Eaters looked like?" Remus asked sharply.

Harry frowned, but just before he was about to respond, a thicker-set man about Sirius and Remus' age came in.

A red flag went up in his head, and Harry shut up. Something told him not to trust this man. "Who are you?" he asked warily.

"Oh, sorry," Remus said suddenly. "Harry, this is Peter. He was friends with your parents as well."

The red flag turned into a siren.

"Sirius, what's going on?" Jess asked. Sirius didn't respond for a long while, still holding Harry tightly against him. "Sirius?"

_Finally, Sirius sighed, kissing the top of Harry's head as Harry tried to bury himself into Sirius' shoulder. "Come sit down, Jess," he said quietly as he rubbed Harry's back comfortingly. "This is going to take a while to explain."_

_"You never mentioned his parents were murdered, Sirius," Jess said softly as she combed her fingers gently through Adam's tousled hair._

_"What was I supposed to say, Jess?" Sirius replied, resettling Harry on his lap. "That the reason we left England was because everybody thought I had killed my best friend and his wife? The plan was we would bluff. Anybody would've known that I would be Secret-Keeper, I was the first person they would go after. James and Lily and Harry, they'd be safe. Peter would go into hiding as well, nobody would've guessed he was Secret-Keeper, they'd think he got scared of dying and ran. And when I went to check on him, and the lights were all dimmed…" he trailed off, voice shaking. "Peter hated the dark, he never would've dimmed his lights if he had been there."_

_"Sirius, you couldn't have known," Jess said, brushing her hand lightly against his face._

_"But I should've, Jess, I should've. I as good as sold James and Lily to the Death-Eaters."_

_"No, you didn't, Sirius," Jess said softly. "There was no way you could've known."_

_Sirius cleared his throat abruptly and scrubbed at his eyes. "You know, James and I promised each other we'd always get through anything and everything together. And then right when James needed me the most, I let him down. Nearly lost him everything he lived for."_

_Harry listened to this conversation with some uncertainty. He had never heard Sirius talk like this, never in his life. He didn't like this voice: this angry-and-sad-at-the-same-time voice. It scared him._

_"Sirius?" he asked worriedly, looking at him. "Sirius?"_

_"Yeah, Harry?" Sirius asked quickly, his voice returning to its normal, more cheerful tone._

_Harry relaxed. "Never mind."_

He had heard Sirius telling Jess about Peter later that evening, after they thought he and Adam were both asleep. They had left Cairo the very next day: gone to a lot of different places before they got to Solana – Sydney, Bueno Aires, Mexico City, Berlin, Rome, Fort Lauderdale.

Peter sort of held the same spot as Adrian: whenever his name got brought up, Sirius' voice went back to that same angry and sad tone, so mostly they didn't mention him.

Harry sized up Peter momentarily and then said, "Well, I'm going to dinner, then." With that, he quickly escaped to the kitchen, leaving the other men frowning in mild confusion.

Mrs. Weasley looked at him. "Well, it's nice to see you out and about, finally," she greeted. She didn't know what it was, but he was always slightly more willing to come out of his shell after Remus came by. "Are you hungry?"

"Maybe I am hungry after all," Harry said quietly, shifting from foot to foot as he cast cautious glances back behind him.

"Well, go outside and get some food, then," she said with a smile, shooing him out the door. "I imagine the boys might've still left something." Once Harry had gone, she frowned at Remus, who was watching from the doorway to the sitting room. "What brought that on?"

"I'm not entirely sure, Molly, to tell you the truth," Remus replied.

"Twenty minutes ago, he wasn't hungry at all," Molly sighed. "Boys are such fickle creatures."

There was a disbelieving laugh from outside. "Oh, _now_ what have they done?" she groaned as she went to the door. "So help me, Frederick and George, if you're…"

"Mum, did _you_ know this kid is an international Quidditch star?" Charlie called with a grin on his face. Harry was looking slightly embarrassed but not at all overwhelmed by the four youngest Weasleys eagerly pestering him with questions.

"What?" Molly asked in exasperation. "Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, leave the poor boy alone. Let him eat in peace. Charlie, you must've mixed Harry up with somebody else."

"No, I haven't!" Charlie exclaimed. "Harry Black, Innes Preparatory, Seeker. I guess you have to follow the international student scene to catch it."

"Charlie, dear, this is Harry Potter. Not Harry Black. It must be a different boy who looks similar."

Charlie scoffed. "Names are fickle things, Mum. Besides, he's not denying it."

"Boy can't get a word in edgewise, that's why," Molly snapped. "Gracious! Fred, George, really!" she berated. "Go clear your dishes."

"But _Mum_!" both twins exclaimed in indignation.

"Ron, Ginny, finish your dinner. Leave Harry to eat. Bill, Charlie, Percy… go do something useful. Now, Professor Dumbledore, Remus, are you staying for dinner?"

"I'm sorry, Molly, but Remus and I need to go," Dumbledore apologized.

"We're due at Azkaban in half an hour," Remus explained.

Harry's head perked up momentarily. "Azkaban?" he asked eagerly. "Are you getting Sirius out?" Molly's face darkened. They shouldn't have mentioned Azkaban.

"Not out for good, Harry, not yet," Remus told him with a sigh. "We just have to talk to him about something."

"Can I come with you?" Harry persisted, hopeful eyes looking at Remus.

"Harry, you don't want to go," Molly said firmly. "Finish your dinner."

"Please, Remus?" Harry insisted. "I promise I'll behave."

"Molly's right, Harry," Remus sighed finally. "You don't want to come."

"Yes, I do!" Harry begged. "Please, can't I come this _one_ time?"

"No, Harry, I forbid you to go," Molly said imperiously. "Stop pestering Remus and eat your dinner."

Harry glared at her. "You have no right to tell me what I can and can't do!" he snapped angrily. "You're _not_ my mother!"

"Harry, apologize!" Remus exclaimed.

"No!" Harry replied defiantly.

Later that night, Harry was lying down on his cot in the dark, listening to Percy's whistling snores when Ron spoke up timidly from across the room. "Hey, Harry?"

"Yeah?" Harry replied sullenly.

"Why're you so angry about all this?" Ron asked. "I mean, aren't you glad you're back home now?"

"I'm _not_ home," Harry said, swiping at his eyes quickly. "I _had_ a home, they took it away."

"I mean like a _real_ home, with a family and stuff."

"I _have_ a home with a family in Solana!" Harry snapped angrily.

"Really?" Ron asked interestedly. "What was it like? I mean, I guess it was just you and Black, but what was your village like?"

"Solana's pretty small," Harry said quietly. "There's only six families in it including mine. It's really well protected, that's why we moved there in the first place. If you don't know exactly where it is, you don't normally find it. But there's a lot of kids in the village. I think the smallest family has five kids. Our houses all face out onto each other, in a sort of courtyard. We school-age kids all get picked up by our school buses in the village and dropped off again."

"What's the school in America? I can never remember," Ron asked curiously.

"There's eight," Harry replied. "We take an assessment test in the spring before we start school to decide which tier and which school we belong in. There's three Schools, that's the fourth tier: Dennison, Abernathy and Nockenels. Nockenels is the bottom of the chain. The third tier is the Institutes, Brevick and Labady. Second tier is the Academies, and that's Crystal Springs and Kenelm. And the first tier is Innes Preparatory. My brother and I are the only ones in the village who go to Innes."

"You have a brother?" Ron asked.

"Two, actually," Harry said, "and four sisters."

"Older or younger?"

"Adam's only two days older than me, but we don't bother counting that. Confuses a lot of people when we tell them we're twins and then they try to figure out where my green eyes came from, since Adam has blue eyes like Jess and Sirius' eyes are grey. My sisters and my other brother are much younger. Chloe's the oldest, and she's just turned 6. Sophia's turning 4 in November, and Lindsey turned 2 in May. Miriam and Kevin are going to be a year old in December, they're the youngest."

"But they're not really your brothers and sisters, are they?" Ron commented thoughtfully. "I mean, you've got completely different parents." He was startled when Harry immediately bristled at the comment.

"They _are_ my brothers and sisters," Harry snapped. "Just because my blood isn't the same doesn't make me any less a part of my family!"

"Shut up, would you?" Percy grumbled drowsily as he shoved his head under his pillow.


	9. Escape Back Home

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter VIIIEscape Back Home 

Molly walked through the house, waking up each room. "Bill, Charlie, don't be such a slugabeds. Ginny, dear, get up. Fred, George, out of bed right now. Percy, Ron, H… where's Harry?"

Ron and Percy both sat up sleepily, rubbing at their eyes. Ron yawned enormously and mumbled, "Must've got up already."

"Well, I've been awake for two hours and I haven't seen him," Molly said worriedly. "Arthur!" she called quickly.

Harry stifled a yawn and gripped his trunk and broom a little more tightly as he watched the grates pass by. The Floo Network really was an inconvenient way to travel internationally. But the grates were starting to look more and more familiar, and he quickly jumped out as he spotted his destination.

He had landed in a room paneled with rich, dark mahogany wood, a cold stone hearth and then plush crimson carpet. On the desk, a gold nameplate said _William Ambrose, Headmaster_. A closed door across the room showed no signs of life, and Harry quickly charmed his trunk to float as to avoid any more noise than necessary. Opening the other door next to the fireplace, Harry stepped out into a magnificent hallway, snoozing portraits lining the walls. Harry walked quickly down the hallway until he reached another door marked _Boys Dormitory_ in elegant gold script. He opened the door quietly, and stepped inside.

The boys' round common area was decorated much like the headmaster's office, dark paneled walls, colonial-era furniture and a warm flickering fire. There were eight doors circling the common area, each marked with a year. _First Year, Second Year_… all the way up to _Eighth Year_. The professional training class had their own level in the school.

Harry took a deep breath and opened the _Second Year_ door. He revealed yet another hallway, four doors in a line down the left-hand side. Walking in, he watched the nameplates on the doors carefully.

_2-ATerrence, Samuel_

_Friesen, Caiden_

_2-BO'Laughlin, Shamus_

_Isaac, Quinn_

_2-CCameron, Alexander_

_Rogelevsky, Ivan_

_2-DBlack, Adam_

Harry grinned to himself and opened the door, satisfied when _Black, Harry_ added itself onto the door in the sad empty space underneath Adam's name. He was back where he belonged.

Slipping inside and closing the door again, Harry quickly stored his broom next to Adam's in the closet, put his trunk at the end of the bed and dug out a pair of pajamas. He changed, but before he crawled into bed, he climbed onto Adam's bed and poked him. "Oi, Adam."

Adam groaned and mumbled incomprehensibly, shoving Harry away. "It's too early, Harry. Go back t'bed."

Harry snickered. "Adam," he repeated.

"Go _away_, Harry," Adam grumbled. "It's not even light out, it _can't_ be Quidditch practice yet."

Harry bit his lip to keep from laughing any louder. "Adam."

"What?" Adam finally demanded, sitting up and scrubbing at his eyes drowsily. Then his eyes widened. "Harry!" he exclaimed, tackling his brother and laughing. "What are you _doing_ here?"

Harry laughed and returned Adam's hug, saying, "I'm about to go to bed, actually, I just spent six hours in the International Floo Network."

"So England let you come back, then?" Adam asked excitedly, releasing Harry and sitting cross-legged. "Just for school or can you come back to Solana, too?"

Harry grinned like a fool. "I can go wherever I please, I suppose," he said evasively.

"What about Sirius?" Adam asked quietly.

Harry sighed, momentarily depressed. "They wouldn't tell me anything. They wouldn't even let me see him."

"Well, if they let you come back, they have to let Sirius out soon," Adam said in a semi-confident voice. "Why are they even keeping him there?"

"They wouldn't tell me that either," Harry admitted. "I think it has something to do with when my parents died, though."

"Mr. Black, may I have a word with you?" Headmaster Ambrose asked quietly as he stopped at the second years' table in the dining hall during breakfast.

Harry and Adam both looked up.

"Harry," the Headmaster clarified. Adam shrugged and returned to his breakfast.

"Mr. Black, kindly do not shrug, it is a horrible misuse of one's muscles," Headmaster Ambrose said sternly. "Mr. Black, if you would come with me? It will only be for a moment, I won't keep you from breakfast for long."

Harry got up and followed his headmaster out of the dining hall and into his office. "Yes, sir?" he asked carefully. He had abided by all the Innes dress code: he had washed up thoroughly after Quidditch practice this morning, he was wearing the entire Innes uniform. He hadn't done anything against the code of etiquette and ethics: had been respectful towards his instructors and peers, hadn't been (overly) disruptive.

"Mr. Black, I was under the impression you had been transferred to Hogwarts School in England," Headmaster Ambrose said calmly, taking a seat behind his desk. "I have a letter from the headmaster to such effect."

Harry frowned at him. "Well, they've transferred me back, Headmaster Ambrose. Didn't you receive the owl?"

"Don't frown, Mr. Black, it's most unbecoming on an Innes pupil. No, I did not receive an owl of any sort from England."

"Well, maybe the owl got lost overseas," Harry suggested, straightening his expression. "My education is too advanced for my placement at Hogwarts, they said." It was true, wasn't it? Dumbledore himself had said that Harry was far ahead of his classmates. "Maybe the letter will arrive today. I'm sure Professor Dumbledore had mentioned that they were sending me back early this morning. I was pretty confused, though, when nobody was there when I arrived. I didn't want to disturb you, sir, I just went straight to my dormitory."

"Yes, I suppose it _is_ possible…" Headmaster Ambrose murmured, more to himself than to Harry. "Very well, Mr. Black, you are dismissed to return to the dining hall. You'll recommence your classes as usual today. Be warned you _will_ have to catch up on the work you've missed."

"Yes, sir," Harry replied politely and then left.

"Misters Black and Black, would you kindly concentrate on the task at hand?" called Transfiguration Master Michaelson. "Unless you would like to demonstrate the proper method?"

The two brothers shook their heads.

"Kindly respond, Misters Black and Black. An Innes pupil has no need to use silent responses, we are capable of proper speech."

"No, Master Michaelson, we would not like to demonstrate," Adam replied.

Adam and Harry both quickly returned to their textbooks, biting back snickers. Halleigh Beauvoir frowned at them in exasperation from across the room. Harry sent her a grin and she rolled her eyes and shook her head before she bent back down over her textbook.

Adam elbowed Harry suddenly, nodding his head towards the door. Harry looked over and paled. He quickly slid down in his seat and propped his book up to hide his face: it was Headmaster Ambrose speaking to Master Michaelson in a low tone of voice. Master Michaelson nodded and then called, "Mr. Black, and you know which you are, would you come down here?"

"Yes, Master Michaelson?" Adam asked calmly, putting down his textbook and coming up to the front. Harry bit back his laughter behind his book.

"Not _you_," Master Michaelson snapped impatiently. "You know full well that I'm speaking to your brother. Mr. Black, follow the code or suffer the consequences."

That one was clearly directed at Harry, since the code Master Michaelson was referring to was part of the Innes Preparatory Code of Etiquette and Ethics: "Any pupil given a summons is to report to the summoning party promptly. Failure to follow this exigency will result in loss of privileges and pupil will be accorded discipline." He'd been through the Innes' discipline a few times last year, he wasn't keen to repeat the experience.

Sighing, Harry put down his textbook and came to the front, exchanging a glance with Adam as they passed each other. "Yes, Master Michaelson?" he asked.

"Gather your things, Mr. Black, you won't be returning before the end of class," Headmaster Ambrose said quietly.

"Mr. Black, you know the code," Headmaster Ambrose stated calmly as they entered his office.

"Yes, sir, I do," Harry replied uneasily.

"Then you realize you broke it by lying to me."

"Yes, sir, I do."

"Tell me, Mr. Black, what possessed you to do such a thing? The code specifically states that under no circumstance is deceit tolerated within these walls."

Harry stayed quiet for a moment, casting an occasional guilty glance at Remus, who clearly had been distressed by Harry's sudden departure. He liked Remus well enough – Sirius had always told him he had liked Remus a lot when he was a baby too.

"Answer me, Mister Black. Why would you break the code?"

Harry bit his lip.

"Don't bite your lip, Mr. Black, it indicates untrustworthiness."

Stopping it immediately, Harry said quietly, "I broke the code because I knew that if I told the truth, you would've sent me back to England."

"You've caused quite the uproar, young man," Headmaster Ambrose said after a moment. "Master Lupin here told me that there was never any decision to send you back to Innes."

The unspoken reprimand that Headmaster Ambrose was sending didn't escape Harry's notice. In Innes, the only people who were referred to as Master or Madame were those with direct authority over you. The subsequent code was that you gave unwavering obedience to those authorities. Disobeying meant discipline and loss of privileges. To call Remus 'Master Lupin' was telling Harry that he had shown blatant disrespect to his superiors, and would be punished accordingly.

"That's correct, sir," Harry said quietly, keeping his eyes focused carefully on the toes of his shoes.

"Look at me when you address me, Mr. Black."

Harry brought his gaze up to meet Headmaster Ambrose's cold, hard gaze. "That's correct, sir," he repeated softly.

"Then you've broken yet another code, haven't you, Mr. Black?"

"Yes, Headmaster Ambrose," Harry replied, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"Don't put your hands in your pockets, Mr. Black, you are not a hoodlum. What code did you break?"

"'Proper respect and obedience will be given to those in position of authority.'" Harry said softly, as if by rote, as he pulled his hands out again.

"Don't mumble, Mr. Black, it's very uncouth."

Remus wanted to step into the middle of this conversation and halt it. For goodness' sake, the boy was only eleven! He couldn't be expected to be perfect. And some of the things the headmaster kept interrupting the flow of conversation to berate Harry about were so minor that Remus would be willing to wager his entire life's savings that nobody else would ever comment on: hands in his pockets, biting his lip, even the way he was speaking.

Remus could see Harry was clearly ashamed of himself, and to him, that was good enough. Harry's actions had been quite understandable: the poor boy had been ripped away from everything he knew and dropped right into a completely different culture without so much as a half-hearted explanation. He had expected something like this to happen.

The way Harry, and other students Remus had heard as he was walking down the hallways of Innes, was reeling off the different codes he had broken told Remus that this was evidently something that each Innes student was ordered to memorize.

It was ridiculous. No child should have to try and remember all of that.

"All right, sir," Remus said finally, interrupting yet another cool reprimand. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take Harry back to England now. We've got a ways to go."

"Yes, certainly," the headmaster replied, looking at a little taken aback by the audacity of interruption. "I am terribly sorry for all the trouble."

"Come on, Harry, let's get going," Remus said. "Get your stuff from your dorm room."

Harry nodded glumly.

"What was that all about, Harry?" Adam demanded immediately as Harry opened the dorm room door. Apparently Adam had decided to bolt down his lunch in order to get back to the dorm room before Harry. He stopped when he saw Remus behind Harry. "Aw, come on! You _can't_ be leaving, you just got here!"

"I know," Harry muttered, yanking his trunk out while Remus waited patiently in the doorway.

"So what'd Headmaster Ambrose do, Harry?" Shamus asked, poking his head into the dorm room and seeming to ignore Remus. It seemed like the whole second-year boys' dormitory were waiting to hear the story.

"Did you get caned?" Ivan asked, popping up behind Shamus as the other boys all tried to shove their way into the room.

Remus' face darkened immediately and he frowned sharply at Harry.

"You broke, like, a thousand codes, you _must've_ gotten caned!" Quinn said. "Oh, Ashleyanna overheard some of Headmaster Ambrose's reprimand on her way from Transfiguration, the whole class knows by now," he added as a quick explanation.

"They're not _allowed_ to cane us, remember?" Adam and Harry both said scornfully.

"Oh, that's right, didn't – "

"He _blew_ his _lid_," Adam snickered.

"Came storming into the school, he even threatened to transfer us to Crystal Springs, until Headmaster Ambrose told him once you're accepted, it's for the full eight years because you can't switch tiers," Harry laughed, sitting back on his knees on the bed. "Then he just told him they weren't to lay a hand or cane or any sort of physical disciplinary action on us. I've never seen him that angry in my _life_, besides that once in Cairo. It was sort of scary."

Adam laughed. "Makes you wonder what he'd do to that Death-Eater if he ever got a hold of him." This was obviously a story, probably largely exaggerated, that the boys had all heard before, judging by the laughs and nods.

"Harry, come on, we have to go," Remus said quietly. "You have to stop by Solana and apologize to Jessica for giving her the scare of her life."

"You were in Solana?" Harry and Adam asked in unison, looking at him.

"That was the first place we looked when Molly found you gone," Remus replied. "Didn't realize you start school a month earlier."

"Harry!" Jess exclaimed in relief, wrapping him into a tight hug. "Don't you dare pull a stunt like that ever again, you hear me?" she scolded, pushing back a stray lock of his hair. "You single-handedly greyed my hair. You're getting scruffy. Did I cut your hair before you left?" she asked, frowning.

"Jess!" Harry complained mildly, pushing her hands away from his hair. "It's _always_ like this, Jess. It just grows back if you cut it."

"All right, then," Jess amended, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Now, you behave, you hear me? No more running off. Did your birthday present arrive all right?"

Harry nodded, a radiant smile breaking out on his repentant face. "Thank you," he said cheerfully, giving her another hug.


	10. Starting Hogwarts

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter IXStarting Hogwarts 

Harry was back into his melancholy mood by the time they got back into England and had straightened out the situation, the smiles and momentary sparkle in his eyes gone. The Ministry hadn't been impressed with the Weasleys letting him get away that easily – they had revoked emergency custody from Arthur and Molly. After a long deliberation, and it _had_ been long, they finally gave custody to Remus.

Remus sighed and watched the young boy, mildly worried. He liked the Harry he had seen at Innes with his classmates, the Harry he had seen with Jess. He didn't like this quiet, sad boy who simply did as he was told without a word spoken.

"Remus?" Harry asked a few days later at dinner, putting down his spoon.

"Yeah?" Remus answered, the smallest of frowns on his face. Harry had been out of sorts all day, had stubbornly refused to leave his room, even for lunch. Remus had no idea what he was supposed to do, had no idea what had even triggered the change. He was still feeling ill from last night's full moon, and he didn't know if that was what had thrown Harry off, or if it was the fact that it had been Peter who had stayed with Harry all night, instead of him going to Weasleys like he had begged.

Harry had never been particularly fond of Peter, even as a baby. Back then, James and Lily had assured him that it was probably just because Harry wasn't as used to Peter as he was to Sirius and Remus: he came by far less when Harry was up, rarely stayed as long, and truth be told, Peter hadn't been all that comfortable with Harry either.

"Is it true that I look like my dad?" Harry asked quietly.

Remus frowned. That was a really out-of-the-blue question, and Harry had never asked about James or Lily before. "Why do you want to know?" he asked.

Harry shrugged. "Just… wondering. People keep telling me that."

Remus sighed, and closed his eyes. "You _do_ look a lot like James did when he was 11."

"Really, really like him?" Harry asked.

"Almost exactly, except your eyes. You've got Lily's eyes, a little bit of her facial structure, but other than that, you look exactly like James."

"Oh," Harry said, studying his half-full bowl of soup. "Was he and Sirius close?"

Remus frowned again. "Why all the questions, Harry?"

"I _told_ you, just wondering," Harry replied quickly – a little _too_ quickly for Remus' liking.

"All right…" Remus said doubtfully. "James and Sirius were more than close, Harry. They were more like brothers. You rarely saw one without the other."

Harry was quiet for a moment. "So why do people think Sirius killed my parents, then, if they were so close?" he finally asked softly.

_Harry sat curled up in his chair, casting dark glances towards the thickset man desperately arguing with Remus. He had an abandoned book open on his lap, but his attention definitely wasn't on it._

_"Really, Peter, it's not that difficult!" Remus exclaimed in exasperation, brushing a lock of light brown hair sprinkled with grey out of his eyes. "He's hardly a baby anymore! He'll be asleep most of the time, I just can't leave him alone overnight!"_

_"Remus, I _really_ don't think this is a good idea," Peter replied stubbornly._

_"For heaven's sake, Peter! I don't have time to argue with you about this!" Remus sighed and turned away. Harry quickly returned his attention to his book before Remus noticed he had been listening. Ruffling Harry's hair, Remus said, "You behave for Peter, you hear me? In bed by 9, no arguments."_

_Harry nodded silently. Remus sounded exactly like Sirius when he gave him an order like that. "When are you back?" he asked softly._

_"I'll be back in the morning, probably before you even get up."_

_Harry closed and locked his bedroom door with a quiet click before he changed into pajamas and climbed up onto his bed, taking out his parchment and quill to write a letter to Adam. Remus had told him that as long as he promised not to run away again, he could keep contact with Jess and Adam, and Nicos had arrived two days ago with letters from Adam and Jess. He still wouldn't let Harry see Sirius, but when Harry persisted, Remus swore that he was doing the best he could to get the situation settled as fast as they could. "These things don't just happen overnight, Harry. Questionings and trials take time. It could still be weeks, it could be months. I don't know."_

Sighing, Harry finished his letter, gave it to Nicos to fly home with and slid under his covers, listening to the distant sounds of a howl and he shivered. Not far from Solana, there was a pack of 'wild werewolves': men and women who had chosen not to live the way the vast majority of the American werewolves did, as normal human beings until the full moon, when they would lock themselves in basements or sheds or go deep into forests. The wild ones stayed in the forest areas, never approaching cities or villages and often attacked travelers as food, took children and bit them: that was why the children in Solana were forbidden to go into the forest or within fifty yards of it.

_He had seen one of them, once, a year or two ago. He and the other children his age were playing Quidditch when Maura had pointed him out. The wild werewolf had come to the very edge of the forest, a lot further than they usually went. Jagger's father had spotted him too, and had ordered them to stay up on their brooms. Nothing had happened, but the adults had all started to keep a closer eye on the forest after that._

_Harry had just started to drift to sleep when he heard a soft 'Alohomora' and the click of his bedroom door unlocking. Insides freezing, Harry reached carefully for his wand, lying on his bedside table. "Don't you dare come any closer," he warned in a shaky voice._

_"Really, Harry, why are you locking your door?" Peter's voice came. "You certainly don't think there's any danger to you in this house?"_

_"I mean it, I'll jinx you," Harry repeated, gripping his wand a little more tightly. "Sirius told me about you."_

_"Did he now?" Peter asked. "And what lies, pray tell, did he relate to you?"_

_"They're not lies," Harry retorted. "Sirius doesn't lie to us."_

_"Or so you believe, Harry," Peter replied. "We didn't believe Sirius was capable of something as low as killing James and Lily, not to mention kidnapping you."_

_"Sirius took me because he knew it wasn't safe for me in England," Harry said stubbornly. "Not so long as _you_ were walking around freely."_

_Peter sighed. "You know, you're just like James. Just because Sirius says it doesn't make it doctrine."_

"Harry, come on!" Remus called tiredly. "We have to get going!"

"Coming," Harry replied unenthusiastically.

"The least you could do is not sound like you're going to Azkaban," Remus said. He was still a little irritable: he wasn't used to not being able to sleep after a full moon. He was exhausted, and he was sick, and Harry's moodiness wasn't helping. "It's just Diagon Alley."

"I wish I _was_ going to Azkaban," Harry muttered under his breath. "At least then I'd get to see Sirius."

Remus bit back a snappish retort, knowing he'd regret it later. "Don't bother with the snide comments, Harry, I'm not in the mood for it."

"What are we doing at Dragon Lane or whatever it is anyway?" Harry asked sullenly.

"_Diagon Alley_, Harry. And we're getting your school things," Remus replied tersely. "Now, if you would kindly cease the complaints, it would be much appreciated."

"They're all going to be staring at me, aren't they?" Harry continued, a glum expression on his face.

"Get used to it, Harry, you're a legend over here," Remus said tiredly. "People will always be staring and pointing and whispering."

"I don't like it," Harry muttered. "I wish everybody would've just left me alone."

"Come on, Harry, I don't want this to take all day," Remus sighed.

"Oh, come on, I have to wear _robes_?" Harry complained as he dragged along behind Remus. "Nobody wears robes anymore."

"Maybe in America, Harry, but around here, it's still common," Remus replied calmly, pushing open the door to Madame Malkin's. "And you need them for school. You don't have to wear them outside of school if you don't want."

"Fine," Harry mumbled resignedly. "Adam's going to laugh his head off at me."

"That's only if he knows about it," Remus pointed out with a slight smile. "Just don't tell him."

"I can't just not tell Adam something!" Harry exclaimed indignantly. "I tell Adam everything, and he tells me everything! The brothers thing just doesn't work otherwise."

Remus had to remind himself that it was Harry, not James, he was listening to. It was uncanny, maybe even a little disturbing, just how much Harry resembled James not only in looks, but in behaviour. James had been the exact same way with Sirius: they had never kept anything from one another, no matter how painful it might've been to tell each other. Remus was well aware that there had been some things that he had never been privy to, something relatively major from fifth or sixth year in particular. He hadn't pushed or prodded, thinking that if he needed to know, James or Sirius would let him know. And they never had.

"All right, but you can't be complaining about it, then," Remus finally ceded. "Now get inside so we can buy your robes and go home."

Harry sighed and trudged inside. Remus briefly closed his eyes and then followed him in. It had been some of the longest three hours of his life: people giving him askance looks, dirty looks, as if he had done something wrong. The _Daily Prophet_ had noted Harry's change of guardianship after the whole runaway fiasco – which wouldn't have been so bad, if the _Prophet_ hadn't also mentioned that Remus was a werewolf. His job was on tenterhooks because of it: it had been a straightforward "if something happens to that boy, believe you me, you're going to be gone so fast, you won't know what hit you."

"Ah, yes, our famous Potter," Madame Malkin said briskly as she emerged from the back room. "I thought you'd be by sometime soon. Step up onto the platform, Master Potter, and we'll get your robes done quick as can be."

Remus nudged Harry, who was still seemingly lost in his own thoughts. "Harry. Pay attention."

Harry startled back to the present. "Oh, sorry, you're talking to _me_." He quickly did as he was told.

"Who else would I have been talking to, dear?" Madame Malkin laughed as she snapped her wand at a measuring tape.

"I don't know, but I don't ever get called Potter, so I'm not exactly used to the name. Master's only used for teachers in America."

Madame Malkin cast a questioning glance at Remus, who sighed and said, "It's a long story. Or at least, that's what I've heard."

"Hey, Remus?" Harry asked as they passed the Owl Emporium, momentarily distracted by the window.

Remus paused, and looking at Harry, he said, "No. Absolutely not."

"But Nicos isn't really supposed to fly long distances like that, he's getting sort of old, we've had him ever since we arrived in America and he wasn't exactly an owlet when we got him too. He can do from Solana to Innes and back, but it takes him days to recover from America to England. Plus he sort of does this circle, because Jess sends him to Innes with my letter and Adam's letter, and then Adam sends Jess' letter and my letter and he goes back to Solana before he goes to England and…"

"I get the idea, Harry," Remus interrupted.

"Please?" Harry added hopefully. "I'm not entirely sure that Nicos knows where Hogwarts is any way."

Remus sighed and shook his head. Harry definitely had inherited James' negotiating ability, and Lily's subtle negotiation tactics like the hopeful expression – there was a reason James could never say no to Lily. "Fine," he said. "But you're using your own money for the owl."

"Okay!" Harry agreed cheerfully.

"Do you have everything packed, Harry?" Remus asked the night before the start of term, looking into Harry's bedroom.

Harry, the snowy white Hedwig perched on his shoulder as he lay on his bed reading, nodded. "Absolutely everything."

"Not your broom, though, I hope," Remus said. "First-years aren't allowed to bring their own brooms."

"Well, aren't I _technically_ a third-year?" Harry asked logically with a grin.

"_Technically_, you're a first-year. Hand over the broom," Remus replied, holding out his hand. "I promise I'll take good care of it."

"Don't let anybody touch it," Harry ordered as he flicked his wand at his broom and it floated over to Remus. "Anybody at all. I can't promise that Sirius didn't order anti-theft spells on it."

"Why would he have put anti-theft spells on your broom? Who would try to take it?" Remus asked with a slight smile. "And don't use your wand, I've told you twice already tonight."

"School," Harry replied. "They're quite competitive, Innes students. Adam and I both nearly had our brooms stolen by some older students who didn't want us taking their spots on the Quidditch team. Well, they got a bit of a nasty shock when they tried. I still remember them pleading for mercy from the brooms. Ah, that was _gorgeous_.Headmaster Ambrose said they got enough of a caning from the brooms themselves, they didn't need his as well. But they definitely lost their flying privileges _and_ their outing privileges for two months. One for each broom."

"Why in the world do they cane students?" Remus asked.

"Because a Preparatory has to adhere to such high standards, detentions just don't cut it. Besides, Headmaster Ambrose says that detentions don't really teach you any sort of lesson. The canings are always accompanied by loss of privileges, though, and privileges that pertain to the misdemeanor, because otherwise it's just as useless."

"Well, he does have a point about detention," Remus admitted reluctantly. "Detention never seemed to do much for James and Sirius."

"Yeah, Sirius says they were in detention almost every week," Harry said.

"That's pretty close," Remus laughed. "And they dragged Peter and I into a great number of them as well. I was a prefect with your mum, she nearly ripped my head right off when I got caught with them and given detention."

"Sirius says she was really scary when she was angry."

"Terrifying." Remus paused, looking at Harry. "Has Sirius really told you all of that?" he asked.

"Yeah," Harry replied. "He says it's not really fair to me if I never know anything about my own parents."

"Did he ever tell you what happened to James and Lily?" Remus asked carefully.

Harry nodded. "When I was four. Right before we had to leave Glasgow. And I made him explain better last year when I was having all sorts of nightmares and flashbacks."

"What kind of nightmares?" Remus asked.

"Well, Sirius thinks I'm having nightmares about the night they were killed. They're never really clear, the nightmares. Screaming and a lot of green light. Sometimes I can hear somebody laughing." Harry's face darkened as his expression turned pensive. "My head always hurts when I wake up. When I was little, I had to go find Sirius before I could sleep again. He says I was always crying and shaking, I was so scared. I used to take my blanket with me everywhere for at least an entire day after one of those."

"Ah, yes, Banka," Remus laughed. "I definitely remember Banka. You were very attached to that. Lily had to wash it in the middle of the night, it was the only time you wouldn't notice it was gone. And what about the flashbacks?"

"Those sort of come and go as they please," Harry replied. "The nightmares usually come more around Halloween."

"But what are the flashbacks about?" Remus prompted, mentally making note to ask Sirius about them next time he got out to Azkaban.

"Different things," Harry said. "Usually just normal things. People talking, really, that's about all. Sometimes there's another boy there. It's hard to describe, it's like I'm thinking like a baby again when I have one of the flashbacks."

"That's probably Neville Longbottom, the other boy," Remus mused. "He was really the only other child your age you ever met as a baby. I believe he's starting school this year, too." He sighed. "All right, Harry, get to sleep. We've got to get you on the Express by 10 tomorrow morning."

Harry nodded, sending Hedwig back to her cage. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Harry," Remus replied, closing the door.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you to behave, because I know you won't – you _are_ James' son after all. But don't destroy the castle, all right?" Remus said with a small smile.

Harry gave him a soft smile. "Sirius said the same thing to Adam and I when we started Innes."

"Give it a fair shot, Harry, would you?" Remus asked.

Harry nodded, then waved when he spotted the Weasley children across the platform. "I will," he said.

"And stay away from the Whomping Willow, that thing packs a mean punch," Remus warned.

Harry laughed. "Sirius told me that."

"And don't go near the Forbidden Forest, there's a reason it's forbidden."

"Sirius told me that too. Told me horror stories about the things you guys found in there." He grinned, and for a moment, Remus saw a glimmer of the boy he had seen in America. "Anything else?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Don't let Peeves rattle your cage. Now get on the train before it leaves without you."

"All right," Harry agreed. He hesitated for a second before he impulsively gave Remus a hug.

Remus was momentarily startled by the display of affection, but he recovered quickly enough to return the hug. "Go, would you?" he teased. "You'd think you were _trying_ to stall."

"Bye, Remus," Harry said and jumped onto the train.

Remus took a deep breath before he walked into the room. The Dementors were still a good distance outside of the questioning room, but he could feel their effect.

Sirius looked horrible, he thought to himself ruefully as he watched his old friend sitting at the table with his head in his hands. His face was pale, gaunt, eyes sunken and dulled. He was unkempt, not at all like the sleek young man Remus had grown up with. He was thin – he probably hadn't been eating. Maybe after two months of maximum security, Sirius would admit what he'd done, if only in an effort to alleviate his own torment.

Sirius looked up momentarily when Remus came in. There was a long, uncomfortable silence before he finally said quietly, in a raspy voice, "Thank you, Remus."

"What for?" Remus asked coolly, leaning back against the wall across the room. He didn't want to get too close – it still turned his stomach to think of what Sirius had done. It made him twitch every time Harry said, "Sirius says" in that adoring voice, made him almost sick to lie to Harry about what was going on. The boy nearly hero-worshipped the man, and that would make it that much harder when Harry realized that Sirius wasn't getting out.

"For taking Harry," Sirius replied softly. Remus frowned; how did Sirius know he had custody of Harry? "Ministry stopped by last week," Sirius explained softly. "Sweet-talked them into giving me a bit of an update."

Remus chewed the inside of his cheek. Then he sighed. "Tell me about Harry's flashbacks."

"Has he been having them?" Sirius asked immediately, a worried tone creeping into his voice.

"Not as far as I know," Remus replied. "He mentioned them last night, that's all. What's the situation with those?"

Sirius sighed, face darkening. "He's been having them for years. They always come with the nightmares. He remembers little bits of conversations, old Order meetings, nothing particularly pertinent to anything at all. Except… there was one, must've been a few years ago he had it."

'Probably building up his story,' Remus thought cynically. "What was it?"

Sirius bit his lower lip. "Ask Harry to tell you, it means nothing coming from me. You'd think I made it up anyhow. Is he okay, Harry?"

"He's fine," Remus replied. "On his way to Hogwarts."

Harry tossed and turned in his bed at Hogwarts that night, aching for the warmth and sounds of Innes; for the sound of his brother's soft breathing across the room, not the sounds of four other boys snoring, snuffling, whistling. He wanted the sounds of New York City echoing outside his window – cars honking, distant music, indistinct conversations from the street level. He wanted the simplicity of Innes: at least there he knew what was expected of him.

Hogwarts was so big. Harry's class at Innes was 12 people – eight boys, four girls. They were the biggest class in the entire preparatory, outside of the professional training class – most of the other classes had eight to ten students. Here, there were eight students just in this one dormitory: there were still three more, each with the same amount of students or slightly more. And passwords, hidden doorways, poltergeists and robes, houses and points… it was all so complicated. How in the world had his parents and Sirius and Remus survived seven years here?

Closing his eyes, Harry tried to will himself to sleep. Finally, he dropped off.

"Step aside, silly girl…"

_"No!"_

_"Avada Kedavra!" The light was coming at him. The sounds of a woman screaming pierced his ears._

And a sinister laugh… 

Harry awoke with a gasp, clutching at his forehead. The familiar burning pain was searing through his head. Trembling as he leaned forward to wait out the pain, Harry breathed deep and hard. He hated these nightmares, hearing the screams of his mother dying. At least with the flashbacks, his parents were alive, usually laughing.

He had never told Sirius that he heard Voldemort telling his mum to step aside. He didn't tell Sirius that sometimes he heard his dad shouting for her to run. Telling Sirius wouldn't change what had happened that horrible night: one of the most evil wizards in history had come into his house, a supposedly safe house, and had killed his father and mother… all to get to Harry. Why? What had been so special, so dangerous, about him that Voldemort was so determined to kill him?

Almost as suddenly as he had woken up, Harry was plunged into a flashback: the one he hated just as much as the nightmares.

Harry giggled and reached his arms up to Daddy. He and Mama were talking about something. Mama wasn't very happy about whatever it was. "Up, Da!"

_Daddy lifted Harry up onto his lap. "Lily…"_

_"Please, James, can't we just use Sirius?" Mama pleaded, taking Harry from him. "You know he's not the one."_

_"Lily, I trust Sirius with my life. I trust him with _Harry's_ life. If he suggests that we use Peter, then I trust his judgment."_

_"I don't like this, James. What happens if Peter's the traitor? You've just given us away to Voldemort. Handed him the key to the house, as it were."_

_"Lil…"_

_"No, don't you 'Lil' me! I've been telling you for weeks to be careful around Peter! There's something different about him!" Mama stood up, taking Harry with her out of the sitting room and down into Daddy and Mama's bedroom._

_"Mama?" Harry asked timidly, reaching out his hand to touch her face. "Mama?"_

_Mama sighed and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Harry, you sense it, don't you? You're such a clever child, I'm sure you can tell. If only we could talk sense into Daddy, but he's quite stubborn. Got a loyalty streak a mile wide, your daddy. He doesn't want to believe that the traitor's somebody he trusts. Neither do I, but we can't afford to play with your safety. Come, let's get you down for a nap."_

_"Lily!" Daddy exclaimed. Mama ignored him, fastening the last button on Harry's overalls and lifting him back up into her arms. "Lily, don't ignore me. Lily, please…"_

_Mama sniffled, still ignoring him. "Don't even bother trying, James, you can't dig yourself out of _this_ hole."_

_"What?" Daddy asked. "You can't dig your way out of _any_ hole."_

_Mama sighed in frustration. "It's a Muggle expression, James. It means you can't sweet-talk your way out of this."_

_"You're sure?" Daddy asked, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He kissed the side of her face lightly. "Can I at least try?"_

_"No, no, it's not going to work," Mama replied, though her voice shook a bit._

_"Come on, Lil, what else is it that's bothering you?" he coaxed, kissing her again. "You've been moody for a fortnight."_

_"You had better be very certain you made the right choice, James Potter," she said softly. "There's much more at stake than just your life and mine."_

_"As certain as anybody can be in the middle of a war," Daddy said. "Now what's wrong, angel?"_

_Mama sniffled again, and said softly, "I'm pregnant, James."_

_Daddy seemed shocked. Laughing in disbelief, he said, "You know, of all the things I expected you to say, I have to admit that wasn't one of them."_

_"James, don't joke about this!" Mama exclaimed, tears starting to fill her eyes._

_"I'm not joking about anything, Lily," he assured her. "Calm down. The second something feels off, you and Harry are going straight to Sirius, all right?" He kissed her lightly._

_Mama bit her lip and nodded, setting Harry down on the ground. "All right."_

Harry shook his head desperately, trying to rid himself of the sounds of his parents' voices. He hated this flashback. Any other one, he gladly took. But not this one: not hearing his parents argue, not knowing that if Peter hadn't betrayed his parents, Harry wouldn't have lost a sibling too that night.

He had never told Sirius about that, about his mum having been pregnant. He figured Sirius didn't really need to know that – it would only make him feel even more guilty.

"You were up disgustingly early today," Ron commented to Harry as the Gryffindor first-years went down towards the Great Hall for breakfast. "You're always up disgustingly early."

"I'm not used to sleeping in," Harry replied with a shrug. "Classes at Innes start right at 8 AM, so you absolutely have to be in the dining hall at 7:30 when breakfast starts if you want to eat at all before lunch. Plus, the school Quidditch practice is at 5:30, and that's every day, so I just automatically get up that early. Hey, how are we supposed to know what classes we have when during the day?"

"Professor McGonagall's going to hand the timetables out at breakfast," Hermione Granger replied briskly.

"I hope we don't have too many with the Slytherins, I might actually kill meself," Seamus Finnigan commented.

"I hope we don't have Potions first thing, Fred and George told me that Snape's horrible to Gryffindors. Not surprising, seeing as he's a Slytherin and all," Ron added. "Talk about the most horrible way to start your morning."

"Snape?" Harry asked suddenly. "Is that one of the teachers?"

"Yeah, the Potions professor," Lavender Brown affirmed. "I've heard he's horribly scary. I think he's the black-haired one there."

"With all the grease and stuff?" Parvati Patil asked with a wrinkling of her nose. "He's gross!"

Harry looked over at the staff table and burst out laughing. He looked exactly the same as the descriptions from Sirius' Hogwarts stories. "No way!"

"What?" the other first-years asked blankly.

"Oh, he went to school with my parents and Sirius and Remus," Harry replied, turning around when Snape sent him a smouldering look of hatred. "Sirius told me _all_ sorts of stories about him."

"Like what?" Ron asked interestedly. The others all leaned in except for Hermione, who looked highly affronted.

"You shouldn't be gossiping about teachers, Harry," she reprimanded.

"Yes, _Halleigh_," Harry replied sarcastically before continuing his story. "Any way, Sirius says that when Snape was in school, he was the ugliest little git you've ever seen. Nobody could stand him."

"I can believe that," Ron said wisely.

"Says that he knew more curses when he arrived than most of the seventh-years. He hated my dad and Sirius especially, but he didn't much like anybody else either. He was really awful, too. Apparently he used to call my mum a Mudblood."

"A lot of Slytherins do that, actually," Seamus said, once the colour had returned to his face after Harry's pronunciation of the forbidden 'M-word'. "They don't much like Muggle-borns, most of them are pretty pureblood."

"They can't _all_ be, though," Ron pointed out, "there's not enough of us left and we're not all racist Dark gits."

"I don't imagine it's something they'd publicize if they weren't," Harry commented, just as McGonagall passed with timetables.

Harry frowned as he looked at his. "Um… Madame?" he asked uncertainly.

"It's Professor, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said calmly, pausing.

"Sorry, Professor," Harry quickly corrected himself. "I think I'm missing some classes on here."

"Let me see, Potter," McGonagall sighed, taking the timetable. "No, you have everything on there."

"But…" Harry protested, a confused look on his face. "But there's only three classes today. There's too much free time."

McGonagall couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping. "Well, that's the first time a student has ever told me _that_." She thought for a moment, and then sighed. "Where did you go in America, Potter?"

"Innes Preparatory," Harry replied hesitantly.

"Oh, that explains it," McGonagall muttered darkly as she left. "School full of slave-drivers…."

"So…" Harry looked at Ron helplessly. "She never answered me."

"Three classes a day is plenty for a first-year student," Ron replied. "We only add a few more in third year. And after OWLs in fifth year, we can drop some again. How many classes did you _take_ in America?"

"What were you doing in _America_?" Dean asked curiously.

"I live in America," Harry replied to Dean calmly. "And we had six classes a day at Innes. Except Saturday. Saturday we had seven, and one class on Sunday afternoon. Sunday was Quidditch day for me and Adam, though. We had the school team practice first thing in the morning, and then two national team practices – one in the morning, one in the evening."

Seamus shuddered. "That's disgusting. Did you ever have free time?"

"No, not really. If we weren't on the national Quidditch team, then we would've had most of Sunday."

"Hey, if you were always in class, when did you have time to do your homework?" Lavender asked curiously.

"Two-hour homework block in the evening," Harry replied.

"So you played Quidditch at your school in America?" Seamus asked eagerly. "You were allowed to? That's the worst part of Hogwarts, I think – we can't play Quidditch until second year."

"Are you kidding?" Ron demanded. "He's world-famous for it, he is. Best Seeker in North America, maybe even the world."

"No, I think there's a Bulgarian who's still better," Harry replied. "Viktor Crumble or something, I met him at the internationals in June."

"Really?" Seamus asked. "You went to the international level?"

"Yeah," Harry said with a faint smile.

"What kind of broom do you have?" Seamus demanded. "I suppose you had to leave it at home."

"Yeah, I left it with Remus," Harry admitted. "I got a Nimbus 2000 for my birthday this summer. Haven't really had a chance to ride it yet, though."

Seamus' jaw dropped. "A _Nimbus 2000_?"

"First-years, let's go, you have class," Percy said authoritatively as he materialized at their end of the table.

Harry started to zone out in Potions class, tuning out the smooth undertone of Snape's speech to instead think about what he would've been doing in Potions at Innes. Madame Williams was much more effective a teacher than Snape, he could tell – maybe because she gave off the aura of actually _wanting_ to help struggling students. She was bright, bubbly and she genuinely enjoyed her position. She was one of the few teachers who let Adam and Harry get away with their minor antics, laughing as she said 'Boys will be boys.'

"Harry," Ron muttered, elbowing him in the side.

"Huh?" Harry jumped back to attention. Snape was positively glowering at him. "I'm sorry, _Professor_, what was the question?" he asked innocently, biting back the smirk as he thought about how furious Snape had to be that somebody hadn't been hanging onto his every word.

"I have no patience for disrespect in my classroom, _Potter_," Snape replied, spitting his name out as though it were some sort of filthy word. "I asked you to tell me where I would look if I needed a bezoar."

"Goat's stomach," Harry replied, zoning out again. This was all so old for him. "Cures most poisons."

"Very well, then," Snape said. "What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"No difference, it's the same herb," Harry replied with a yawn.

"If I mixed alethamane and dragonwood, what would I get?"

"Sleeping potion so powerful it's known as the Draught of Living Death. Are we going to do this question-and-answer all class? It's really quite boring."

"_Manners_, Potter! Fifteen points from Gryffindor."

"_Fifteen_?!" the other Gryffindors all exclaimed indignantly.

As the students were packing up to leave, Snape came up alongside Harry's table. "I warn you, Potter," he said softly. "I don't care whose son, or godson, you are, I will not tolerate that behaviour."

"Sirius told me you always thought you were bigger than you really were," Harry replied calmly, putting his potions kit into his cauldron with his textbook. "I'm really not all that impressed."

"Your sainted father and godfather had the same attitude, and look what happened to them," Snape hissed.

Harry looked at him. "Are you threatening me?" he asked.

"Warning you," Snape replied. "Precious Sirius isn't here to rescue you should your head inflate too far like your father's."

"Goodbye, Professor," Harry replied pointedly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, am I boring you?" McGonagall called sharply as she paused in the middle of her explanation. Harry continued to absently doodle on the edge of his parchment. "Mr. Potter!"

"Harry," Ron muttered. Harry lifted his eyes up and looked at him in mild confusion.

"Mr. Potter, is my class boring?" McGonagall asked sharply. Harry turned his attention to her.

"It wouldn't be if I hadn't learnt all this two years ago, Professor," he replied, a twinge of apology in his voice.

McGonagall sighed. It was a constant problem of keeping Harry Potter's attention in any class, the faculty had discovered over the last month. It reminded her very much of James Potter and Sirius Black when they had been at school. Such a pair of bright boys she hadn't seen before or since: they were disruptive because they weren't being challenged. At least this boy just noticeably lacked attention, not acted out – probably due to the 'instruction' of the Innes Preparatory masters. "Pay attention, Potter, before I am forced to give you detention," she finally relented, returning to the lesson.

"Albus, you have to do something!" McGonagall exclaimed as the professors gathered in the staff room.

"I'm sorry, Minerva," Dumbledore replied quietly. "I can't do anything. The board will not allow me to place Harry in a higher level. We'll simply have to continue to deal with his distraction as it occurs."

"Has Sirius Black's trial date been set?" McGonagall sighed. "Perhaps he'll settle if he knows that a decision will be made soon."

"I heard that the Wizengamot refused to have a trial for him," Snape spoke up. "They said that the simple fact he evaded custody for ten years and kidnapped the Potter boy was proof enough of his guilt."

"You forget, Severus, that I still sit on the Wizengamot, and no decision of that sort has been taken," Dumbledore said softly. "I'm trying to wrangle a trial date as soon as possible, but it's taking longer than anticipated."

"Why?" Flitwick asked. "I'm frankly getting tired of stopping my class every fifteen minutes to redirect Potter's attention." The other professors all voiced their agreement.

"The other members of the Wizengamot seem to think that a mind-parsing would be beneficial," Dumbledore replied. "I am loath to agree, and as all members must be in agreement before an action of that magnitude can be taken…"

"A mind-parsing?" McGonagall demanded. "That's terribly dangerous, even for a man of Black's age!"

"After three months in Azkaban, his health is nowhere near an acceptable level for a parsing at any rate," Dumbledore agreed, "and they want to have parsing done on Harry as well."

"Absolutely not!" Flitwick exclaimed indignantly. "The sheer audacity… mind-parsing on a mere boy!… Likely kill him as find anything out…"

"As I and Remus Lupin both told them when the idea was brought forward," Dumbledore said.

"I understand the reasoning," McGonagall said, voice shaking with rage. "Even modifications would have differences in recollections. How would they know if Black's memories are correct if they don't have Potter's to compare it to?"

"Harry would have been present at any conversation James or Lily would've had on the subject of Secret-Keeper," Dumbledore said. "The boy was rarely out of their arms, let alone their sight, short of when he was with Black or Lupin. It stands to reason that he would have also heard or seen the decision. However, there is no question that mind-parsing is completely unacceptable in the case of an eleven-year-old boy."


	11. Tears and Torment

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

* * *

_**Chapter X Tears and Torment**_

_December 20, 1991:_

"Mama, Mama!" Lindsey begged tearfully from her bedroom at about 1 AM. "Mama!"

Jess buried her face into her pillow and tried not to cry in frustration. When Sirius had promised to be back soon, she hadn't envisioned half a year and no end in sight. And then discovering that she was pregnant again hadn't done anything to help. She needed Sirius back, and _now_. She _needed_ him, though it seemed a little silly to admit.

She was going insane, even with the help of the other families in the village. She had already snapped at Adam a number of times, and he had barely arrived home five hours ago. The children were suffering just as much as she was, she knew it, but they grating on her nerves with their coping methods: Adam's sullen moodiness, Chloe's overactivity, Sophia's clumsy attempts to help her, Lindsey's insomnia and subsequent tantrums, Miriam and Kevin's incessant sobbing. They were all missing their father and their brother just as much as Jess was missing her husband and son.

Crazy though it might've seemed, Jess felt as though if she could only have Harry back, she might be able to deal with Sirius' absence. With one of her children missing, it felt wrong – unbalanced.

"Mama!" Lindsey screamed again.

Jess gave up and cried as the sounds of Miriam and Kevin starting their wails sounded. "Sirius, where _are_ you?" she sobbed into her pillow.

"Mum?" Adam asked quietly with a yawn at the doorway to the bedroom. "You want me to go with somebody?"

Jess sat up, motioning for Adam to come sit down. "That's all right, darling," she said softly, wrapping him into a tight hug. "I'll take care of it. You try and sleep."

"I miss Harry," Adam mumbled. "It's not the same."

"Go back to sleep, darling," Jess whispered again, giving him a soft kiss on top of his tousled blonde head. Getting up with a sigh, she went down the hallway to Lindsey's room. "Sweetie, you can't scream like that," she said, picking up her little 3-year-old. "What's wrong?"

"I can't sleep," Lindsey sobbed. "I need Daddy. When's Daddy coming back? Is he here for Christmas?"

"I don't know, sweetie, but screaming isn't going to help. You're keeping everybody up, Lindsey."

"Why is Daddy gone?" Lindsey continued.

"Go back to sleep, sweetie," Jess sighed.

* * *

After she had repeated her nightly round of bedrooms, Jess was about to finally go to bed when she heard the door open downstairs. Heart stopping, she froze at the head of the stairs. This was the part she hated the most: feeling so incredibly helpless.

The sounds of sobs met her ears. "Jess?" came a tentative call. "Jess?"

Jess came downstairs to see a tear-stained face. "Harry?" she said incredulously, even as she caught him in a comforting hug. "Harry, what are you doing here?" she whispered, smoothing down his hair.

Harry shook his head, still crying uncontrollably.

"All right, come into the kitchen, darling," she said soothingly. "Here," she said, sitting her step-godson down on a chair. "Do you want some cocoa?" she asked gently, getting out the mix and a mug. Harry nodded silently, tears slowly subsiding as his eyes followed her around the kitchen. It reminded her of how he had watched her so carefully that first month or so in Cairo, as if he was evaluating her safety. "Now, do you want to tell me what happened?"

Harry sniffled. "No," he said quietly. "Is Adam home yet?"

Jess smiled, ruffling his hair affectionately as she put water on to boil. "He's upstairs sleeping. Does Remus at least know where you are, or am I going to get frowned at?"

Harry shrugged unhappily. "I don't care. I'm not going back there. I'm staying here."

Jess sighed. "Harry…"

"No, I _am_ staying here," Harry insisted. "I'm not going back to that… that…"

"Harry James Black, I would be _very_ careful what words come out of your mouth," Jess warned. "I will not hesitate in washing your mouth out should you say something extremely rude."

Harry fell silent, glowering at his cocoa.

"Good choice," Jess approved, sitting down across from him. "Now what's going on?"

Harry's face threatened to crumble again. "They all lied to me," he sniffled.

"Who, Harry?" Jess asked, heart sinking.

"_Everybody_," Harry replied. "They told me they were trying to help Sirius and they're _not_."

* * *

Once Harry had sobbed out the whole story to Jess, she hustled him upstairs to go to bed before she lost her self-composure in front of him. Coming back downstairs, she sank down into a kitchen chair, rubbing her forehead. Her worst nightmare was coming true.

Her heart ached for her poor, heartbroken Harry. He had trusted the English, particularly Remus, and he had discovered their deception. He was only 11, he was far too young to have to deal with this. His biggest concern should've been school, or Quidditch, more likely, as he was never particularly concerned about school.

Forcing herself to get up, Jess took Harry's untouched cocoa and dumped it out. Might as well do some dishes, she reasoned to herself, seeing as she wasn't sleeping any way.

* * *

"All right, guys, go play outside for a while," Jess said over the sounds of Adam and Harry playing noisily with Chloe and Sophia. "Outside! All of you! Take Lindsey and Miriam and Kevin with you!"

"Okay, Mum," Adam said cheerfully, picking up Kevin.

"Sure, Jess," Harry agreed, taking Miriam.

Jess smiled as she saw the sparkle back in his eyes. She had been woken this morning by Adam's joyful shout of "_Harry's home!_" and her two older boys had been off the wall ever since. Chloe, who was normally off the wall any way, was doubly so with her brother's return and Sophia and Lindsey weren't much calmer. Kevin had been wobbling around the house all morning, chasing after his brothers while Miriam, who still hadn't quite gotten the hang of bipedal movement, crawled alongside him steadily.

He was looking a little peaky, she worried momentarily. Then she forced herself to relax – he simply wasn't used to winter in England, he had probably gotten quite a shock when he realized how cold it got. Winter in California, particularly in southern California where Solana was, rarely if ever got cold enough for more than long pants and a sweater.

"And no brooms!" Jess added as she heard the children all clatter outside.

"Oh, come _on_!" Adam, Harry and Chloe all complained in unison.

"How else are we supposed to practice Quidditch, Mum?" Adam asked.

"Play ground Quidditch," Jess replied, coming outside with them. "Let the little ones play with you."

"You can't play Quidditch on the _ground_!" Chloe exclaimed in a scandalized tone of voice, sounding so much like her father it was a little scary. There was no doubt that the six-year-old was Sirius' daughter: glossy black curls, grey eyes that never seemed to stop laughing, an easy smile and seemingly effortless grace, not to mention the same partiality for Quidditch.

"Don't be so sure, Chloe, that's how you learned to play," Jess replied. "Daddy taught you how to play Quidditch on the ground before he let you come up on the broom with him."

"Really?" Chloe asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Adam and Harry both told her.

"That's how we all learn to play, Clo," Harry said. "C'mon, we have to convince Sophia and Lindsey they want to be Chasers."

"But Lindsey doesn't _like_ Quidditch at all, she won't want to play," Chloe pointed out as the three went out into the yard. "And Sophia wants to be a Seeker, not a Chaser…"

* * *

The game had grown into an all-village affair two hours later, Sophia having finally been convinced she wanted to play Chaser, not Seeker. The littlest Blacks were watching from the sidelines, Lindsey in tears from the horror of having been told to play.

Jess, with Lindsey in her lap, looked away from the game for a moment to see Remus watching Harry, who kept catching and releasing the Snitch almost as often as Adam was blocking goals, from a good distance away. They weren't playing nearly at the level they normally were at. When he noticed her looking at him, she looked away again, a frown on her face.

But he wasn't going to let it drop. Soon enough, he had come around to where Jess was sitting. "He's good," Remus said quietly.

"Who, Harry?" Jess asked coolly, moving Lindsey so that Sophia, who had been honorably discharged from the game, could join her on her lap.

"Yes," Remus replied, a little taken aback by the frosty reply. "Not at all the level I'd expect out of an 11-year-old."

"You haven't seen anything yet," Jess said, and a touch of pride crept into her voice. "He's holding back. Watch him when he plays in the nationals if you want to know how well he really plays. He's the best Seeker in the country, possibly the world. And that's including professionals."

"Mama, they kicked me out of the game!" Chloe complained, flopping down to the ground.

"That's all right, Chloe, it's getting too violent for you anyhow," Jess replied, wincing as Adam made a particularly hard slide across the grass to save a goal, ripping up grass as he did so. "Adam, be careful!" She let a sharp gasp escape as Harry ducked to narrowly avoid a Bludger while diving for the Snitch again. The Bludger came so close it ruffled Harry's hair, then circled around and went after one of the other children. "Oh, I really don't like Quidditch," she murmured to herself.

"Me neither," Lindsey agreed solemnly.

"All right, both of you can't play anymore!" David exploded in frustration at Harry and Adam. "It's not fair, _you're_ like professionals and _we_ barely ever play!"

"Fine," Adam muttered, throwing the Quaffle at him while Harry got to his feet, dusted off his knees and pocketed the Snitch.

"Hey, give us back the Snitch!" Maura exclaimed indignantly.

"It's _my_ Snitch!" Harry threw back. "Yours is still floating around somewhere, why don't _you_ find it?" He and Adam both dropped down onto the grass, Harry pulling out his Snitch to play with it again.

* * *

Remus had the idea that he was watching 11-year-old James again as he watched Harry catch and release, catch and release while Adam watched. Finally, he said quietly, "Harry."

Harry showed no sign of having heard him, though his catching got mildly more violent.

"Harry," Remus repeated. Still Harry ignored him. "Harry, I'm not going to beg."

"Maybe you ought to," Harry muttered, never looking at him.

The whole conversation was reminding him of James and Lily after an argument. Lily would ignore James while he futilely tried to get her to talk to him, until he finally declared that he wasn't going to grovel. It always, _always_ ended with James groveling, but that wasn't entirely surprising, considering how badly he'd always been head over heels for her.

"Well, I'm not going to, Harry," Remus finally finished. "Just, please, put away the Snitch and hear me out." Harry shook his head and continued to play with his Snitch.

"Harry, give me the stupid ball," Jess sighed, holding out her hand. "I told Sirius he shouldn't have bought you that." Harry glowered and gave her the Snitch. "Thanks, sweetheart. Now listen to what he has to say."

"No," Harry replied. "Nobody listened to _me_, why should I listen to _him_?"

Remus sighed. "Touché. Listen, Harry, I won't pretend that we handled the situation in the most… delicate fashion. Maybe there were some things that we should've been more upfront about with you."

"Like the fact you _lied_ to me for six months?" Harry snapped nastily.

"Harry," Remus tried again to get his point across. "Harry, you were barely more than a baby when the Dark War ended. You can't possibly understand just how much fear there was, how much anger there still is over untimely deaths, permanent damages to people's souls."

Harry suddenly seemed to zone out, eyes blanking and his face twisting into a grimace as he put his head into his hands and grasped at his hair.

"Harry?" Remus asked worriedly, shooting a glance at Jess.

Jess groaned. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, he hasn't had a daytime flashback in years…" she sighed. "We can't do anything about it. He'll come back out of it, but there'll be no more discussion on this particular topic today."

* * *

As he watched his young protégé, Remus suddenly understood why Sirius had sounded so worried when Remus had asked about the flashbacks: they were rather disturbing to see. The poor boy's face was going from scared to calm to frightened to terrified to calm to angry to calm to sad to pained… if Remus hadn't known better, he'd have said Harry was going mad. He was shaking, pale, clammy.

"Are they always like this?" Remus asked softly.

Jess shook her head. "Not on this level, I don't think. Sirius normally handles the flashbacks himself – I think it's his way of paying penance. This is one of the worst I've ever seen."

"He's had them this bad before," Adam spoke up, "but they were at night, after the nightmares. He wakes up, but the flashback starts almost right away. The day ones are usually much littler. Not many people notice when he has them."

"I suppose you'd have to spend day in and day out with him to notice little things like that," Jess sighed. "And I don't believe you two have been separated even a day since you were 4."

"Nope," Adam replied. "We even switched around our rooming assignments at school to stay together."

"I would believe that," Jess said with a smile as she ruffled her son's hair. "You were both absolutely horrified when Sirius and I suggested you have a bunkbed."

Harry shuddered as he came out of the flashback. "That's a mockery to brotherhood," he said softly, a grin escaping as Jess mussed his hair and Adam tackled him.

* * *

Remus watched the interaction. There was no doubt that Harry was a part of this family, he thought. And it was no wonder that Harry was so miserable in England: this relationship between him and Adam ran just as deep as James and Sirius had, well beyond any level of friendship Remus had ever known.

Maybe there was some truth in Sirius' story. Why would Harry, if he did indeed have flashbacks of James and Lily's betrayal, still trust Sirius if Sirius had been the one who had betrayed them? And then there was Harry's mistrust of Peter – sure, he could've been conditioned into that response by Sirius' stories, but how to explain those same feelings as a baby? Harry had never liked Peter – not even to be in the same room. He would put up such a fuss that eventually Lily or James had to take him out, not to mention that he wouldn't leave somebody's lap if Peter was present – he would simply clamber up and tuck himself into the nearest person's arms, be it James, Lily, Sirius or Remus. And that Boggart in the grandfather clock… he had never gotten a clear look at the form, as Lily had just taken care of it, but it had resembled a man of about Peter's size.

"So what was the flashback this time, Harry?" Jess asked gently. Harry shook his head and pursed his lips.

"It was the one where they're fighting, wasn't it?" Adam said knowingly. Harry looked pensive, then nodded.

"Who's fighting?" Remus asked Harry quietly.

Harry paused. "My mum and dad," he replied softly.

Remus frowned. "What are they arguing about?"

"I told you, we're not discussing this any further today," Jess interrupted. "All right, guys, inside, it's almost time for dinner. Boys, can one of you take Miriam?" she asked as she picked up Kevin.

"Yeah, okay," Harry said immediately, picking up his baby sister. "Took _you_ long enough to get here," he added in a semi-sarcastic voice to Remus. "Almost a whole day this time."

"I decided to let you cool off," Remus replied tightly, not appreciating the lack of respect. "And I would much appreciate a little less sarcasm in your voice."

"And _I_ would much appreciate being told the _truth_," Harry returned pointedly. "I might be small, but I'm _not_ a little boy."

* * *

Remus was again reminded why he didn't miss his grandparents' big family dinners. There was so much noise.

Jess didn't seem in the least bit fazed by the sheer volume or the fast pace as she caught cutlery, redirected food towards mouths and not the floor, filled cups and plates and somehow managed to eat her own dinner.

Harry and Adam were both deep in discussion about something – Remus thought he'd heard the words 'Quidditch' and 'Paris' in there. The oldest little girl – Coral? Katie? – kept interrupting the boys' conversation with excited chatter, then chattering to Jess for a while before turning her chatter towards her younger sisters. The second little girl – Sophie? Sarah? – seemed to have a coordination issue with grasping her cup. That would likely explain why hers was plastic, though she seemed old enough to use a glass. There was a steady quasi-dance going on with Jess and the third little girl – Leah? Lynn? – as she continued to catch cutlery as it fell. The two toddlers were taking advantage of their mother's distraction to throw bits of vegetable and bread at each other, giggling as they did it.

They reminded him a bit of Harry when he was about their age. He was horribly spoiled and knew it, and knew that one glance with those big green eyes and anything would be forgiven in a heartbeat. Remus had always secretly thought that Harry purposely pelted whoever was in the kitchen for attention. Many a time Remus had left the Potter house still trying to get the last few bits of food out of his hair.

_

* * *

"Don't turn your back on Harry," James muttered under his breath to Sirius and Remus as they walked in. Remus was back to rooming with Sirius since he'd lost yet another job for some half-cracked reason – Sirius had always been more than willing to let Remus stay with him at his place when Remus didn't have a job._

_"Why?" Remus asked suspiciously. Sirius didn't really listen to James that time, and promptly turned his back, leaning against the counter._

_Sirius let out a yelp and his hand went to the back of his neck. "What was that?" he asked, turning around to see 10-month-old Harry giggling, covered in food._

_"I think that was the applesauce," James said contemplatively, handing Sirius a towel. "If you were lucky, it was the applesauce."_

_"And if I wasn't?" Sirius demanded weakly as Remus grinned and went to get Harry out of his high chair._

_"Don't complain, I had mushed meat of some kind mixed with mashed peas thrown at me at lunch. It was disgusting, I don't blame him for throwing it."_

_"Look at you, did you even eat any of – hey!" Remus exclaimed when Harry promptly placed a handful of applesauce on his face. "Oh, come on, that's not nice!" he laughed as he wiped it off._

_Harry giggled and bounced excitedly in Remus' arms._

_"Yeah, he likes to disperse food lately," James said sagely as he went to go find some clean clothes for the little boy._

_"All right, creature, let's get you cleaned up," Sirius said, taking the towel he was still holding to wipe off Harry's face. Harry squealed in delight and wiggled around._

* * *

"To bed, Chloe!" Jess said sternly as she spotted a small shadow at the head of the stairs. Then she turned her attention back to Remus. "So what's the truth of what's going on?" She winced as she heard a crack outside: Harry and Adam were outside playing Quidditch. "Paris had so better be worth this," she muttered to herself.

"Paris?" Remus asked.

"The International Students' Quidditch Cup," Jess replied. "The playoffs are in Paris this year. They'll be heading out there for June with the national team."

The fact Jess was talking as though both boys would be going didn't escape Remus' notice.

"What's going on?" Jess asked again. "Harry told me the story, but I'd rather hear again from somebody who isn't a traumatized eleven-year-old."

"Oh, he was hardly traumatized," Remus objected. "A little upset, but – "

"Excuse me, who's been raising him for the last seven years?" Jess interrupted. "I know when my children are upset, and that was far beyond Harry being upset." She brushed past him with a cold glare as she opened the front door. "Adam, Harry, that's enough Quidditch for tonight. Put away your balls and come inside."

Remus growled internally. Infernal… _women_! Who needed to deal with them and their drama? Men were far more simple: any _man_ wouldn't be putting up this cool ignorance of what was supposed to be happening. He and Harry should've gone back to England hours ago – the Ministry was going to murder him in cold blood. But every time he started to tell Harry to get going, Jess would calmly get him involved in something else for her and cut off any chance of that happening.

"Why are you still here?" Adam asked with a glowering expression as he and Harry came in.

"Adam, go upstairs and get ready for bed. Harry, stay down here for a moment. We need to straighten a few things out."

"I want to stay too!" Adam exclaimed. "I'm just as old as Harry, I'm older even! If he gets to know, I want to know!"

"Harry gets to know because it concerns him. This doesn't concern you, Adam David Black, now go to bed," Jess replied warningly.

Adam growled under his breath and stormed upstairs while Harry dropped unhappily into an armchair. "So what do you want?" he asked sullenly.

"Drop the tone, Harry," Jess ordered. "I thought I told you not to run away again."

"Yeah, well, that was _before_ I found out everybody was lying to me."

Jess sighed. "Harry," she began. "I know you're upset, darling, but you can't keep running away like this. Everything is going to hinge on you behaving."

"Do I have to go back?" Harry asked plaintively, turning his gaze to Remus for a moment. "Can't I just stay here?"

Remus watched his young protégé with a degree of uncertainty. He certainly couldn't keep Harry now: the Ministry wouldn't let him, and even if they did, there was no telling when he would find another job. He simply couldn't afford to do it, and he had been denied use of Harry's vault, even for Harry's own expenses. He didn't want to send Harry off to another foster family – he likely wouldn't be allowed to see Harry then, and he wanted to keep an eye on Harry, if only for James and Lily's memory. And Harry was miserable and troublesome at Hogwarts.

He _could_ probably convince the Ministry to let Jess take Harry back, could try a compromise of some sort – visits on a regular basis to make sure all was going well. And there was no doubt that Innes would be much more stimulating for Harry, despite his misgivings over the corporal punishment.

Finally, Remus said quietly, "Here's what I'm going to do. I'll leave you here over Christmas break. I'm going to head back to England and try to mop up this mess, and I'll see what I can do about convincing them to let you stay in America."

Harry's face lit up and burst into a radiant smile. Then it faltered. "What about school?"

Remus sighed. "I'm not a miracle worker, Harry."

* * *

"I can stay!" Harry exclaimed as he came into his and Adam's bedroom, tackling his brother in excitement. "I can stay!"

Adam let out a shout of joy. "Like forever?" he asked excitedly, pushing Harry off of him and sitting up again.

"I think so, but at least for Christmas," Harry laughed, sitting back on his heels.

"Adam, Harry, go to bed," Jess ordered, though her voice was laugh-y again as she looked into the room. "You're going to wake the little ones."


	12. A Breakthrough

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter.

* * *

**_Chapter XI A Breakthrough_**

Sirius tried not to think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts would only destroy him: the Dementors fed off of him more than enough times. Was Jess all right? Was Harry happy at Hogwarts – was he having a good Christmas holiday, with Remus? Hopefully he wasn't pining for Adam too much, or for Innes – Hogwarts was such a different school than Harry was used to, a lot less strict and a whole lot bigger. Personally, Sirius thought Hogwarts was a lot more fun than he supposed Innes would be, what with the ghosts and stairs and such, but Harry and Adam seemed to enjoy Innes enormously. To Innes' credit, they emphasized a lot more on class involvement and building relationships as well as skills, whereas Hogwarts really didn't have anything outside of Quidditch for the students to interact.

He hadn't heard or seen anything from the Ministry or from Remus and Dumbledore since Harry's departure for Hogwarts in September. Based on how frenzied the Dementors were getting, he figured it must be around Christmastime. It would be such a trial for Jess this year: the girls were all so excitable on holidays, especially Chloe. And Adam would still likely be pining for Harry's company – the boys had never been separated even a day since they were 4. Looking at them, Sirius could see why Remus had blown up at him and James one day, probably first or second year, about being so exclusive.

He didn't think Harry and Adam realized it, but they didn't seem to mind that only they themselves knew what they were talking about half the time. He and James had had to make a conscientious effort to make sure Remus was included – most of the time their conversations went straight over Peter's head, so they hadn't bothered to try and explain to him.

"Merry Christmas, everybody," Sirius murmured to himself, closing his eyes to try and recapture the details on his family's faces.

* * *

"What do you mean, I've got to go as Potter?" Harry exclaimed indignantly the night of Boxing Day. He and Adam were due back at Innes on the 28th, the bus was coming at 4 AM tomorrow. "But they all know me as Black, I don't want to switch names again!"

Remus sighed and rubbed his temples wearily. "Harry, please don't make a fuss. That was the Ministry's condition for you staying here. Now, you don't really have a choice in the matter of family name: you can stay here, go to Innes and be Harry Potter, or alternatively, I can drag you back to England with me, you can go to another foster family, go to Hogwarts and be Harry Potter. And might I remind you that you can't play Quidditch in England?"

Harry sulked and scuffed at the floor with his socked foot. "Fine," he mumbled. "I'll go as Potter. But I won't like it," he added defiantly.

"All right," Remus sighed. He was at the end of his rope with Harry – right now as far as he was concerned, Jessica could _have_ the temperamental little devil.

* * *

"But your name's not Harry Potter," Adam said in confusion. "Not anymore, any way. No more than I'm Adam Rothesay now."

"I know," Harry said, kicking miserably at the empty seat in front of him on the Innes bus. "But at least I get to come back to Innes!" he added happily.

"Yeah," Adam agreed. "It was really depressing, being in the room by myself. I'm glad you're back."

"I'm glad I'm back too," Harry said. "Hogwarts was bigger, more boring and way more confusing. I like Innes better."

"I can't believe you bought yourself an _owl_," Adam laughed, looking at Hedwig again. Hedwig hooted softly, nudging her head against the cage. "So how do you figure you're going to catch up? You missed the whole first term."

"I studied a lot in the library at Hogwarts," Harry replied. "The headmaster said that their third year is about the equivalent of our second year, so I just made sure I read the school's copies of third year classes. I think I'll be fine."

"You're going to have _so_ much writing to do," Adam snickered.

"I _know_, my arm's going to fall off."

"And Coach Henderson is going to explode with glee. Henry Warkshaw isn't anywhere near as good as you at Seeking."

"I figured."

"And Coach Anderson-Whickett is going to collapse in relief. He still hadn't found a replacement for you on national. We're going to Paris, Harry! _Paris_. _France_."

"Adam, we don't speak French."

"I know, isn't it _great_? It's going to be so much fun!"

* * *

Harry very quickly settled back into the rapid-paced rhythm of life at Innes, from the 5:30 AM Quidditch practice to bedtime at 11:00 PM. What he didn't settle into very quickly was the name change.

"Mr. Potter," called Astrology Master Aaron Charens one crisp spring night. Master Charens was possibly the strictest of all the teachers at Innes, one of the quickest to resort to corporal punishment and definitely the most brutal punisher, none of which was working in Harry's favour that particular class. "Mr. Potter."

Harry continued to work on his essay, discussing the upcoming semi-finals for national Quidditch with Adam in a quiet voice. His mind being exhausted and occupied, he hadn't quite made the link when Master Charens yanked him up out of his chair by his hair. "Ow! I'm sorry, Master Charens, I didn't hear you!"

"Oh, I'm sure, Mr. Potter, I'm sure you didn't hear me, occupied as you were on other conversations with Mr. Black, doubtlessly," Master Charens snapped nastily, hauling Harry to the front of the class.

The room fell silent: any student brought up to the front was about to be caned, and many of the students Master Charens caned wound up in the hospital wing or at very least bedridden for the next few days.

"No, you're not allowed to cane me, Sirius _said_!" Harry cried out as his heart started to race.

"Stop, Master Charens, you're not _allowed_!" Adam added in panic. Both brothers' faces were chalk-white in shock, as were a few of the other faces in the class: what was Master Charens doing? Everybody knew that the Black brothers' father had forbidden the teachers to physically punish them.

"There is no agreement anywhere in this school," Master Charens started to say as he took out the cane, "that says we are not allowed to cane Harry Potter."

* * *

Remus stepped out of the fireplace, dusting off his robes with a sigh. He nodded briefly at the headmaster, who still seemed to be waking up. "Where's Harry?" he asked.

"This time of day, he'll be out on the Quidditch pitch," Headmaster Ambrose replied with a yawn.

* * *

It was far too early in the morning for anything to be happening, Remus decided as he stepped onto the Quidditch pitch, seeing a few lonely figures circling above. An adult Remus decided must be the coach was talking to Adam, a concerned frown on his face.

"Where's Harry?" Remus asked quietly, coming up to the pair.

Adam looked up, and Remus saw red eyes that betrayed tears and dark circles that betrayed many sleepless nights. "Why?" he asked, voice hoarse.

Remus sighed. "Well, A - because the Ministry of Magic wanted me to check on him, B – because I've some news on Sirius for you two."

Adam bit his lip. "Harry's back in our dorm room. He can't get out of bed."

"Why, is he ill?"

The coach scoffed derisively. "By this rate, I wouldn't be surprised. It looked pretty nasty yesterday."

"He won't listen to me!" Adam exclaimed to the coach. "I told him to go to the hospital wing on Saturday!"

"What happened?" Remus asked again.

Adam's eyes threatened to spill over with tears again. "He got caned Saturday night by Master Charens."

"The Astrology Master," the coach explained to Remus. "He's quite well-known around here for his degree of brutality."

Adam took off after Remus, who was heading back towards the school at a rapid pace.

* * *

"I thought Sirius told the school that they weren't allowed to cane you," Remus said tightly, opening the door to the boy's dormitory.

"Master Charens said that since Harry's last name got changed, it doesn't count for him anymore," Adam said as they entered the second-year hallway.

"Harry?" Remus asked softly, opening the door to the brothers' dorm room.

There was a soft whimper of pain that answered him. Adam slipped in and sat down on his bed, watching as Remus knelt down to worriedly inspect Harry.

Harry was deathly pale, trembling and clammy. He was lying on his stomach, eyes slightly vacant and filled with tears of pain. It looked as though he was still wearing his uniform trousers, back riddled with bruises and deep gashes that looked to be gathering infection.

"Harry, what happened?" Remus asked softly, brushing back a lock of his unofficial godson's hair and flinching when Harry whimpered again.

"I don't know what I did," Harry whispered. "I swear, I didn't hear him. He's not supposed to cane us, Sirius'll have his head…"

"All right, all right," Remus soothed. "Calm down, Harry, all right? Here, I'm going to take a closer look at your back. I think we're going to need to take you into the hospital."

"No!" Harry exclaimed, then cried out in pain at the effort required by his muscles.

"Harry, this is not an option for you," Remus said. "Your back is in ribbons, and it's infected. This is far beyond bed rest. The Healers need to get at it now."

* * *

Tears trembled at the edges of both Harry and Adam's lashes as the Healer carefully poured the infection-fighting potion onto the open sores. "Boy, what happened ta you?" she asked disapprovingly. "Ain't yo mama never tol' you don' go near dem Crups 'less it be yo own pet?"

Harry sniffled and tensed at the burning sensations. "It wasn't a Crup," he whispered.

"He got caned at school," Adam added softly.

"You Innes?" the Healer asked, a tone of displeasure in her voice. Adam and Harry both nodded. "Man, we get all dem Innes kids in here on break. Infections galore. Tho you be the worst I done seen yet. Dem kids don' go ta tha hospital wing, do dey?"

Harry shook his head. "We're supposed to suck it up," he said quietly, eyes averted from Remus' concerned face. "We're not little children."

"Quickest way to get yourself killed, Harry," Remus said, brushing a lock of hair off of Harry's face again. "You have to know when to get help. You can't do it all alone."

* * *

_"Lily, go get Harry."_

_"No, James, come with us."_

_"Lily, I want to know that you and our children are safe. Go now."_

_"James, you can't do it all alone, don't do this!"_

_A crash and shouts. "Lily, take Harry and run!"_

_"James!"_

_"RUN, Lily!"_

_"Avada Kedavra!"_

_Mama's shaking arms scooped him up from his crib, wrapping him up in one of his blankets._

_Another crash and they fell to the ground, Harry tumbling from Mama's arms._

_"Step aside, silly girl."_

_"No!"_

_"Avada Kedavra!"_

_Mama screamed. Then the light came towards Harry._

* * *

It was another week still before Harry was feeling well enough to sit up. Adam bounced into their bedroom at home and flopped down onto the foot of his bed. After the whole caning fiasco, Jess had pulled them both out of school indefinitely. "So, feeling all better, then?"

"A little," Harry said with a soft smile. "Where is everybody? It's too quiet in here."

"Everybody's sleeping for once," Adam said cheerily. "The little ones are all down for naps and the baby's sleeping and Mum decided she was tired and was going to bed. It's rather boring all by myself downstairs. Feel up for a game of Quidditch?"

"Nah, not quite that much better," Harry admitted. "I could go for some wizard's chess, though."

"Right on, then," Adam said happily, digging out their board from somewhere in the dark, murky depths of the closet. He deposited it all onto Harry's bed and the two brothers started setting up. "Hey, so I found where Mum's hiding all the candy now. Want a Chocolate Frog?"

"Sure," Harry replied, laughing Adam whisked out two and gave him one.

"I thought you might," Adam laughed. "Pawn to D-1."

* * *

"Good to see you up and about," Remus greeted Harry with a relieved smile as he came into the house. Adam, Harry, Chloe and Sophia (he had finally gotten all of the children's names straight) were playing what looked suspiciously like a scaled-down version of ground Quidditch, but without the Bludgers. Lindsey had gotten herself up on a couch with a doll and some clothes, as far away from the action as she could possibly get, and Miriam and Kevin were both playing with some kind of toddler's puzzle.

"Yeah, I'm still a little stiff though," Harry replied with a grin, dodging Chloe as she tried to dive at him. "She can't usually get near me."

"All right, game's over!" Jess called, coming into the sitting room with the newborn Nicholas nestled in her arm. "Do something non-destructive that won't cause bodily harm, you know I can't fix it if you break something."

"Aw, come on, Jess!" Harry complained.

"But that's not fun!" Adam added, as Sophia climbed up next to Lindsey and started to play with her. Chloe trudged off towards Miriam and Kevin with a dejected look on her face.

"I'm not hauling you all into the city to take you to the hospital when you break an arm or get a concussion!" Jess said imperiously. "No, don't give me that look, boys. It's not going to work. Oh, hello, Remus," she added.

"Still haven't sent them back?" he asked quietly.

Jess sighed, shaking her head. "I am still angry beyond belief at that school. I'm not sure I want to send them back. Harry's right, Sirius is going to have their heads when he gets back."

"On a silver platter," Harry added.

"With apples in their mouths like they're courses at a luau," Adam agreed.

"I know they need to go back to school," Jess admitted as she watched the two older boys flop onto one of the couches, looking bored. "They're getting restless."

"You can always considering sending both of them to Hogwarts," Remus offered quietly.

"And have them wreak mayhem? No thank you," Jess laughed. "They wouldn't know what to do with all that freedom. They're used to having every minute of every day planned for them."

"Mum, I'm bored!" Adam called lethargically. Harry nodded in agreement.

"Can't we go play Quidditch?" Harry asked. "We'd be extra careful."

"We'd even play without Bludgers," Adam begged.

"No!" Jess exclaimed. "No more Quidditch today! Merlin, that's the only thing you'd do all day if I'd let you!"

"But we've got to keep up our practicing for Paris!" Adam complained. "We can't lose, not the internationals!"

"Go read, you two! Do something productive that doesn't involve brooms or balls!"

"You're sure you don't want to reconsider Hogwarts?" Remus asked again.

"I'd send them anywhere right now. I'd send them to bloody Durmstrang," Jess muttered. "They're driving me nutty. I just don't want to be getting owls every day saying they've blown up a toilet or something because they're bored."

"After Sirius and James, it's pretty hard to blow up the toilets at Hogwarts," Remus laughed. "Hogwarts is every-type-of-troublemaker-proof."

"I don't think it's Adam-and-Harry-proof. Nothing is Adam-and-Harry-proof," Jess countered darkly. "Merlin! Boys, _what_ did I _just_ say?" she exclaimed when there was a crash upstairs. "You better not have broken anything!" In exasperation, she put Nicky into a baby seat and collapsed onto the same couch Harry and Adam had just vacated. "I give up," she said dully. "Take them. I don't care where you take them. I don't care how you get them out of here. I give up. I can't do this anymore." Her voice wavered.

After a moment of awkward silence, Remus turned to go upstairs, only to see Harry and Adam both watching from the top of the stairs. Harry was chewing at his lower lip nervously, Adam looked near to tears. "Come on," he finally said quietly to the two young boys. "Get your school things packed."

Harry and Adam both nodded silently and left. Moments later, they appeared again with their trunks. Remus charmed both and the boys inched cautiously back into the sitting room.

"Mum?" Adam asked tentatively. "Mum, we're sorry."

"We didn't mean to make you cross, Jess," Harry said softly.

Jess looked up. "Oh, come here, you," she said, wrapping them both into her arms. "I'm not cross with you. Just in a crying jag, that's all. You both behave yourselves at Hogwarts, all right?"

They both nodded.

* * *

"Whoa…" Adam breathed in awe as they reached the entrance to the Hogwarts grounds, blue eyes wide and jaw buried in the ground. "It's so… big."

Remus had to stifle a laugh. "Come on, boys. Let's try not to disrupt classes any more than we're going to already. Professor Dumbledore will want to talk to you before you go to join your class, I imagine, and Adam will need to be Sorted."

"Sorted?" Adam asked nervously. "Sorted for what? Sorted how?"

"He can't just go with me back to Gryffindor?" Harry asked. "It's just a hat, Adam. Raggedy old hat you have to put on your head."

Adam relaxed. "But why do I need to be Sorted?" he asked Remus.

"It's how we put students in their houses here at Hogwarts. The house is your dormitory," Remus told him. "There's four, and they all have different personality characteristics, based on what the founder the house is named after favoured in their students."

* * *

Professor Dumbledore surveyed the two uneasy, somewhat unkempt boys in front of him over the rims of his glasses. They strongly reminded him of James Potter and Sirius Black at their age, when Professor McGonagall had hauled them into his office to await punishment for a particularly nasty prank. "So," he said calmly. "Master Potter, you gave us all quite a fright."

Harry shifted his weight from one foot to the other guiltily. He was starting to get used to being addressed as 'Potter', and that was scaring him.

"I believe you also shattered about fifty rules set in place to protect you along the way," he added blandly. "I hope you enjoyed your Christmas break."

"I did, sir," Harry replied softly.

"Good," Dumbledore said with a smile. "You needn't look so worried, boys. I simply wanted to have the chance to speak with you in private. Not many things remain secret for long around this school. Now, you must be Adam."

Adam looked taken aback by Dumbledore's casual demeanour. He nodded, then his Innes training kicked in. "Yes, Headmaster Dumbledore. Adam Black."

Dumbledore chuckled. "No need for that degree of formality, Adam. You may address me as Professor Dumbledore if you wish, or simply Professor."

"Yes, sir," Adam replied.

"Now, we need to have you Sorted, I believe," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "Remus, if you would be so kind as to pass the Hat?"

Remus nodded, taking down the Sorting Hat from its watchful post on a shelf. Adam looked at the Hat in skepticism, then stood perfectly still as Remus put it on his head. Finally, the Hat announced pompously, "Gryffindor!"

"Well, there you have it, then," Dumbledore laughed, Remus replacing the Hat back on its shelf. "I believe the first-year Gryffindors are in Potions at the moment, you'd best be off. I shall write a note to Professor Snape excusing your attire, lack of supplies and tardiness for today."

"Um, I didn't bring my Hogwarts robes with me to Solana," Harry said. "I don't have them at all. And neither does Adam."

"I still have your robes at my house, Harry," Remus said quietly. "I'll bring them tonight. You and Adam will have to share the robes."

"And what about Quidditch?" Adam asked suddenly. "We're on the national team, sir, we're supposed to be in Paris in June. Coach Anderson-Whickett doesn't have a replacement for Harry, and the boy who was supposed to be my alternative just got expelled…"

"I will speak to your trainer," Dumbledore said, "and see if an arrangement cannot be made. I must say, if you two play half as well as James and Sirius played, it would be a shame to keep you off the pitch. Now, go on, off to Potions. Remus, may I have a word?"

"Certainly, Professor," Remus replied, as Harry and Adam both lit up at the tantalizing prospect of receiving Quidditch privileges and dashed out of the office.

"He did say Snape, right?" Adam asked as the two brothers walked down towards the dungeons.

"Yeah. He looks exactly like the stories," Harry told him, pushing open one door. The two brothers stepped inside, pausing when Snape looked up and had the ugliest expression slide onto his face.

"You're late, you don't have your supplies and you're in Muggle attire," Snape said tersely as Harry and Adam came forward through the class, Adam looking a little nervous. "Twenty points from each of you for each offense."

"We have a note excusing that from Professor Dumbledore," Harry said, holding out the parchment. Snape snatched the parchment from his hand and read it quickly, nostrils flaring with anger before he crumpled it and threw it under a nearby cauldron. Snapping his wand in the direction of the student supply cupboard, Snape gestured at an empty table.

"I expect you to catch up with the rest of the class. There will be no talking."

"So who are you, again?" Ron asked Adam curiously as the first-years all exited the dungeon, casting sidelong glances at Harry and Adam, whispering to each other.

"Adam Black," Adam replied.

"My brother," Harry told Ron.

"Sweet. I'm Ron Weasley," Ron added. "This is Neville, and Dean, and Seamus. They're in Gryffindor with Harry and I. What house are you in?"

Adam looked at Harry briefly.

"He's in Gryffindor too," Harry answered for him.

"Excellent, we can always use more Gryffindors," Ron said, as though he were speaking of food, or spare quills. "So why don't you have your robes on?"

"We just came straight from America," Adam said. "Harry didn't take his robes when he left England."

"Remus is bringing them tonight," Harry agreed. "Until then, Professor Dumbledore said we can just wear our normal clothes."

"Lucky," Dean said enviously. "I miss wearing normal clothes."

"These _are_ normal clothes!" Ron, Seamus and Neville all exclaimed.

* * *

"Potter, Black?" McGonagall asked as she looked at the gaggle of first-year boys working on homework in the common room. She had the strangest sensation of having gone back in time. How many times had she come in here, calling James Potter and Sirius Black into her office for a serious discussion of their behaviour?

Harry and Adam both looked up. "Yes, ma'am?" Adam asked. Then, as they noticed the man standing next to her, their faces burst in nearly identical grins. "Coach Anderson-Whickett!"

Andrew Anderson-Whickett grinned back at his favourite players. "Your headmaster would like me to inform you that practice remains at the same time every week."

"You will need to present yourselves to my office an hour prior," McGonagall said. "Keep in mind that there's a five-hour time difference. And I expect good behaviour in exchange for these privileges."

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said, eyes gleaming. "So does that mean we get our brooms?"

"Your mother had me bring them out," Anderson-Whickett said, producing a pair of Nimbus 2000s from behind him. "And your uniforms," he passed both boys their national team uniforms and their brooms. "I'll see you both Sunday."

"So if practice is at 8:00 in America," Adam said, looking at Harry, "that means it starts at… well, England is five hours ahead, right?"

"So practice starts at 1:00 here?" Harry offered.

"So we'd need to go see what's-her-name…"

"McGonagall," Neville said.

"Right, her – we'd need to be there at… noon?"

"Sounds about right to me."

"What are we supposed to do about the three hours in between?" Adam asked. "Y'know, where we normally have Muggle Coexistence?"

"Good question," Harry said. "Didn't think to ask. I guess we hang out on the pitch."

"Throw Bludgers at each other," Adam laughed.

"And watch the pros' practice," Harry added.

Adam's face lit up. "Right, that's when the American national team has their practice, isn't it?"

"We could get drafted," Harry grinned.

"Professionals before we're 12, that'd be awesome."

"And we could win the Quidditch World Cup and go to eternal glory!"

"You're ambitious," Ron said mildly. Adam and Harry didn't seem to hear him, lost in visions of Quidditch World Cup glory dancing in their heads.

"What time would we get back?" Harry asked suddenly, looking at Adam.

"Well, sectionals end at 9," Adam said. "So, add five hours onto that, we're back here at…"

"2 AM."

* * *

Dumbledore and Remus were watching as the Ministry officials wrapped the restraints around Sirius' thin wrists. Sirius seemed resigned to the procedure, staring blankly at the ceiling. For one frightening second, Remus wondered if he hadn't been administered the Kiss.

"Are you sure about this?" Remus asked Dumbledore softly.

"We've been left with no choice, Remus," Dumbledore replied quietly. "This has dragged on long enough. If what he says is true, we must act now. A family is on the verge of breaking apart."

Remembering Jessica's helpless tears, Harry's miserable face, Adam's anger, Remus nodded. "What about Harry? You're not going to take him off of Quidditch for this?"

"Harry is in the other room, preparing for his own parsing," Dumbledore answered. "As soon as it is done, I will send him to catch up with his team in Paris."

"If you don't mind, I'm going to go there," Remus said quietly, slipping out the door and running for the other room. Coming in, he could see Harry fighting tooth and nail against the Ministry officials trying to hold him down long enough to restrain him. "Harry," he said as the boy broke free and made a mad dash for the door. Remus caught the struggling Harry and got down to his level. "Harry. I know it's frightening."

Harry shook his head, eyes pleading with Remus to rescue him. "I don't want to listen to it. I don't want to see it anymore. Please, can't I just go?" he begged.

"Harry," Remus sighed, "I know. But I am telling you the truth this time: this is going to be what sets Sirius free, if he's innocent."

"Of course he's innocent," Harry muttered, but he stopped struggling and let the officials lead him back to the table.

"Show me the night your parents died," the official said clearly, pointing his wand at Harry.

Harry was sobbing, screaming as the scene flashed above him.

_

* * *

"Lily, go get Harry."_

_"No, James, come with us."_

_"Lily, I want to know that you and our children are safe. Go now."_

_"James, you can't do it all alone, don't do this!"_

_A crash and shouts. "Lily, take Harry and run!"_

_"James!"_

_"RUN, Lily!"_

_"Avada Kedavra!"_

_Lily burst into the nursery, face pale and tears in her eyes. Shaking, she scooped Harry up from his crib, wrapping him up in one of his blankets._

_Another crash as the door broke apart and they fell to the ground, Harry tumbling from Lily's arms._

_"Step aside, silly girl," Voldemort said in a high, cruel voice, pointing his wand at her._

_"No!" Lily begged, sitting up. "Please, no, not Harry, kill me instead…"_

_"Avada Kedavra!"_

_Lily screamed and crumpled to the ground. Then the green light came towards Harry._

* * *

Remus dropped to the ground, pale and shaking as the replayed memory faded from the air above Harry. Tears threatened to overflow and he quickly swiped at them. So it had been Harry Voldemort was after: why? Harry had been just a baby, just a harmless little baby…

James had said 'our children'. A momentary lapse of memory? Or… Merlin, had Lily been pregnant?

Another memory was appearing as the official said this time, "Show me the Secret Keeper."

* * *

_"Sirius, I don't know…" James said doubtfully, resettling Harry on one hip. "I really don't know that that's such a good idea."_

_"James, it's perfect!" Sirius countered. "Think about it: who'd ever use Peter as a Secret Keeper? They'd never guess! And I'll still know where you are, but here's the beauty of it: I can't tell them!"_

_James chewed his lower lip. "Sirius…"_

_"Just think about it or something. Talk it over with Lily. Now let me have the kid."_

* * *

For hours, it seemed, they were in there, the official carefully digging out every little detail of the story.

Finally, when Harry's voice was nearly gone from his screaming and sobbing and he looked absolutely broken, Remus spoke up. "That's enough. You're done with him."

The Ministry officials released Harry from the restraints and he tumbled onto the floor, curling up in a tiny ball to sob some more. Remus made his way over and gently started to smooth down his mussed hair. "It's over, Harry," he said softly. "It's over, you don't have to do that ever again."

"C-c-can I see Sirius now?" Harry asked hoarsely.

"I'm right here, Harry," came Sirius' raspy voice from behind Remus as a thin hand squeezed his shoulder. Remus turned around: he hadn't even heard the door open! But nope, Sirius was there, Dumbledore standing back by the door.

Harry looked up and threw himself into Sirius' arms, sobbing. Sirius wrapped his arms around his godson, softly soothing him.

"I'm proud of you, Harry," Sirius whispered to him. "That was an incredibly brave thing you did. More than anybody should ask of an eleven-year-old." He laid a gentle kiss against his head. "Now, I hear you have a Quidditch match in Paris to get to."

Harry nodded.

"Well, let's go, then."


	13. Epilogue: Back Home Again

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. Epilogue: Back Home Again 

AMERICAN STUDENTS WIN ISQC SECOND YEAR IN A ROW

Win 'icing on the cake' for Hogwarts students

PARIS, FRANCE – Winning the International Students' Quidditch Cup for the second time in their lives was only the second-best thing about the day for Adam and Harry Black, 11-year-old brothers and first-year students at Hogwarts School in England.

When asked what the best part of the day was, both brothers promptly answered, "Getting Sirius out of Azkaban." Sirius Black, Adam's stepfather and Harry's godfather, had been wrongfully incarcerated in the English prison Azkaban since July of the previous year, charged with treachery and kidnapping. Black was present to watch his two sons win the Cup.

Why were English students on an American team? That, as Harry laughed and said, rolling his eyes, "is a very long story." Suffice to say that the boys are American residents and former students at Innes Preparatory, qualifying them for the American National Students' Team.

And that wasn't all for the two brothers. Already given laud for their exceptional Quidditch skills, both Adam, a Keeper, and Harry, a Seeker, were short-listed for the American National Team, the youngest members ever at not even 12 years of age. With that appointment, the Black brothers will take on practices with their adult teammates this summer in preparations for the Quidditch World Cup 1994 in England.

So what are they going to do this summer, besides practice Quidditch – which, they claim, they'll never get tired of? When asked that question, both brothers had the same answer: "Go home." Home, being the tiny wizarding village of Solana in California, would certainly sound peaceful for these two globetrotting students.

Sirius laughed and tossed the paper onto the table. "Peaceful, right!" he scoffed. "Don't know what home they're talking about, but definitely not this one!" Grinning, he settled Nicky against his shoulder and caught Lindsey as she clambered up onto his lap. "Hi, princess."

"Daddy, never go away again," Lindsey said.

A shriek and a crash in the sitting room made Jess roll her eyes. "Chloe, Sophia, stop whatever it is you're doing!"

Sophia dashed through the kitchen, quickly tailed by Chloe. Miriam and Kevin were in hot and unsteady pursuit, giggling hysterically. "Mama, when are Adam and Harry home?" Chloe called as she passed.

"They'll be home from practice at dinner," Jess replied. "Do not chase your sister around the house."

"What am I supposed to do, then?" Chloe complained, though she stopped. Climbing onto one of the kitchen chairs along with Sophia, Chloe immediately dove into a long-winded tale about their game outside with the other village children.

Late one night in late August, Sirius wrapped his arms around his wife's waist. "Do you hear that?" he murmured into her ear.

"Hear what?" Jess asked, snuggling happily into his arm.

"Exactly," Sirius said with a smile. "No chatter, no shrieks, no screams, no bangs, no crashes…"

"Sounds almost empty," Jess commented, letting a laugh escape as Sirius kissed her.

"I think we should wake somebody up," Sirius declared. "I've had enough empty for a lifetime."

Jess smiled and twisted around to look at him. "What, I'm not enough company for you?" she asked coyly, weaving her fingers through his hair.

"You're all the company I need, Jessica Black," Sirius replied, hands on her hips as he leaned in to kiss her. "You're sure you don't want to come to London with us tomorrow?"

"I am perfectly happy to never see London again," Jess sighed. "You go ahead. Take Adam and Harry, take Chloe and Sophia, have fun. Just make sure you come home."

"Oh, don't worry, we will," Sirius reassured her. "Now come to bed, love, it's late."

"Chloe, come back here!" Sirius called sharply as his oldest daughter dashed ahead into the crowds in Diagon Alley. Keeping a tight grip on Sophia's hand, he sent his two oldest sons off after her. He was beginning to regret bringing her.

"Missing somebody?" came Remus' familiar voice from beside him, appearing suddenly with Chloe in tow. Adam and Harry reappeared moments later.

"Chloe, stay here," Sirius sighed. "Thanks, Remus."

"No problem. Want a bit of help?" Remus laughed.

"I'd appreciate it, yes," Sirius replied. "Now, it's been eleven years since I've been in Diagon Alley, where is Flourish and Blott's again?"

"We're standing in front of it, Sirius," Adam pointed out.

"I knew that," Sirius said with a grin. "All right, we're in business. Let's get schoolbooks."

"I take you two are going back to Hogwarts this year?" Remus asked, looking at Harry and Adam, who both nodded.

"Eventually they'll catch up with us," Harry said cheerfully. "Until then, we've got Quidditch. We can play on the house team this year."

"More like you can play on the team," Adam countered, "they've already got all the other positions filled."

"Oh, well, we've got the World Cup to prepare for, any way, we won't have time for school Quidditch."

"Eternal fame and glory," Adam sighed happily. "World Cup champions at 14. What more could a person want?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. He was always glad to see that life had gotten back to normal in his family. He had a wife he adored, four sons and four daughters who could always make him laugh. He couldn't have James back, but he had Remus back. He had Harry. Life truly was beautiful.


End file.
